Last month a team of scientists from the Quadram visited the Food museum in Stowmarket, to help people learn more about the gut microbiome.

The team aimed to teach that fibre is good for your health, and that we should eat a balanced diet to help our bodies get the nutrients we need.

Adults are recommended to eat 30g of fibre a day but most people don’t get close to this level.

The Quadram Institute used a game called ‘Digestable’ which allowed school children and visitors to learn about the impacts of different nutrients on the gut. Each player had five tries to roll the ball into the holes, to score points. Each hole represented a different a different nutrient that the body has to digest. The longer it takes to digest, the more points the player scored.

One of the holes represents resistant starch, which is a form of plant-based dietary fibre in our food that’s good for our health and focus of research here at the Quadram Institute.

The institute was represented by researchers from Dr Fred Warren’s group, who study starch breakdown in the digestive tract. Members of the group who took part included Stefan Harper, Anna Ridsdill Smith Dr Akshay Bisht and Dr Martina Vidmar. Plus PhD student Thomas Hunt who studies the health benefits of dietary polyphenols took part along with Communications Manager Andy Chapple.

The Food Science Discovery Day event was organised by the Institute of Food Science and Technology and included exhibits to explore, interactive activities and the opportunity to speak with local producers and food science professionals.

The event organiser, Daria Liutcerina, said: “We want to get the younger generations interested in food science.This is the second time we have hosted this event, and it has been a great success.We are what we eat so we need to start looking at what we are putting into our bodies.”

Visitors were able to look around the exhibits and meet the professionals from food and drink manufacturers. Additionally, they could talk directly to local producers about the process of the products.

Martina Vidmar, one of the Quadram Institutes researchers said: “It’s really nice to organise these kinds of events. It’s nice to talk to younger people about the gut and their health.”