Beginning Friday, Eastern will be the lone university assisting Mundelein-based FiberGel Technologies Inc., a subsidiary of Circle Group Holdings Inc., in testing what may arguably wind up being the most successful fat substitute in history.

Z-Trim, a fat replacement that lowers up to 50 percent of calories and fats in foods without hindering taste or texture, has been available for consumers to purchase online since January in a powder form.

The product is one Greg Halpern, Chief Executive Officer of Circle Group Holdings, said consumers can expect in mainstream food products made by Nestle and other major food brands by summer.

“Few people know about it now, but by the end of the year everyone in America will know about it,” he said.

The company purchased the patent from the United States Department of Agriculture laboratory in Peoria, where Z-Trim was developed.

From June through the end of the year, it will air $20-$30 million worth of commercials hawking the zero-calorie, corn-based substitute that increases healthy insoluble fiber when used in products, Halpern said. He said a direct response company will be responsible for all the marketing and promotions involving the product.

First-year School of Family & Consumer Sciences Chair James Painter, former assistant professor in the Department of Food Science and Nutrition at University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, initially became involved with FiberGel Technologies when he introduced his Nutrition Analysis Tools and System (NATS) to Halpern at a conference last June. The NATS program uses tables to analyze the nutrient content of the food people consume and is compatible with most browsers. During midsummer of last year he licensed the company with a 15-year agreement to make NATS accessible through the Z-Trim Web site (ztrim.com).

During his encounter with Halpern is when Painter became aware of Z-Trim, which at the time was in the process of being developed. In exchange for pursuing Z-Trim studies, Eastern received a financial gift from FiberGel Technologies, Painter said.

Now, Painter said, working in conjunction with food science instructor Susan Rippy, Eastern’s food science class will experiment with Z-Trim by cooking with it along with recruiting consumer panels to serve as taste testers.

“I asked Susan Rippy if she would take this experiment to her classes,” Painter said. “I want the faculty to be doing real world teaching. I really wanted to make a connection between Eastern and industry. We’ll gather the consumer panel to gather the overall opinion (on how well it is received). It is a win-win situation.”

Students will be incorporating Z-Trim into baked goods, salad dressings and the like and gradually will chart how well it performs in the various tests the class conducts.

Rippy insisted while she expects the fat substitute to help people battle obesity, they still must implement lifestyle changes.

“We will be using the gel to substitute for part of the fat in common baked products,” Rippy, who with Painter has already what the testing will entail, said. “Part of our work will be to determine the acceptability of the finished product and to determine the level of replacement that will be acceptable … It will help, but people must still incorporate a well balanced diet with variety and moderation …”

Painter expressed confidence in Z-Trim and is hopeful it eventually become a food industry staple.

“I really like Z-Trim,” he said. “It is exactly what we need in this country. It is not a magic bullet because obviously there isn’t one. But it comes close to it.”

Painter, who has conducted ample research in the field of nutrition and health and fitness, has created meal bars and gives lectures on diets, anticipates Z-Trim will be a massive success that Halpern will directly reap the benefits from.

“(Halpern) is very excited because it will probably make him millions,” he said.

Not only that, but Halpern expects Z-Trim to help curb the United States’ constantly climbing obesity rates.

“This is huge breakthrough,” he said. “By the end of the year, everyone will know Z-Trim is the answer to obesity. It you look at what people are doing now (with the various diets), it is a great solution.”

Presently, according to the Department of Health and Human Services Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the prevalence of obesity in the United States has soared at an epidemic rate during the past 20 years. The department also states one of the national health objectives for the year 2010 is to reduce obesity among adults to less than 15 percent.

And with the reaction his company has received thus far from the food industry regarding Z-Trim, Halpern is over the moon about the product and its future. He said FiberGel Technologies is scrambling to meet the demand of major brand corporations that want to use Z-Trim in their food products.

“They are jazzed about the product,” Halpern said. “The problem is they want more of the product than we can provide. It’s a push-pull campaign.”

Z-Trim’s versatility is what Halpern said adds to its appeal.

It can be mixed a myriad of products including salad dressings, cookies, brownies, mayonnaise and butter as a fat replacement. And Halpern said consumers will be deceived when they compare the Z-Trim laden food with full-fat product.

“Actually, a too-good-to-be-true scenario came out of the product,” he said. “In a taste test seven out of 10 said Z-Trim was the full fat product.”

Adding to the enticement of Z-Trim is that it is relatively cost competitive with fat.

“It’s make a gourmet cookie that’s less expensive, even less expensive than Mrs.Field’s,” Halpern said.

Although its powder form is the sole form than can currently be purchased by consumers, it also is made in the gel form the food science class will be experimenting with.

“We are only selling powder, but we want to sell it as a gel,” he said. “I can sell smaller amounts as powder though and it is cheaper for the consumer.”

Kathy Rhodes, a senior dietetics major and student in Eastern’s food science class, said she is elated to have the opportunity to participate in the fat substitute tests.

“I am very excited about the Z-Trim project,” she said. “It is so wonderful to be in

on the ground floor of a fat substitute that I feel will be the breakthrough for obesity in America today. When the sugar substitutes came out, everyone thought that was it – everyone can eat what they want and it won’t affect their weight.

“Well, as we can all see, that sort of backfired. Z-Trim is different … I tried one of the chocolate chip cookies (baked with Z-Trim available online) and it was unbelievable. There was no after taste or strange taste. It was soft and chewy like a cookie should be.”

But Rhodes divulged she won’t dub the product the diet solution until her class conducts an array of tests.

“The only drawback I have on Z-Trim is the fact that they don’t know the long term effects of it yet,” She said. “That is one of the tests, as many others will be, that will be conducted for Z-Trim.”