Glanbia has made a further move into the growing functional foods market, buying a small Canadian company that produces food ingredients rich in the nutrient Omega-3.

Pizzey's Milling, which has gross assets of €6.87 million, was picked up by Glanbia as part of its strategy to grow the nutritional side of its business.

Pizzey's produces nutritional ingredients derived from flax seed, a primary source of plant based Omega-3 fatty acids, which have a high nutritional value and have been found by some studies to reduce the risk of heart disease.

Omega-3 also exists naturally in fish oils, but this source of the nutrient has proved difficult to transpose to certain foods.

Pizzey has launched a flax and fish oil combination product branded MeadowPure 03 Ultra, which Glanbia said would allow it to incorporate Omega-3 successfully into foods where incorporating fish oils alone had been difficult.

Omega-3 is added to foods such as dairy spreads, eggs and ham, which are then marketed as having the potential to improve consumers' health.

Glanbia is a significant player in Ireland in the strongly growing functional or "added value" foods sector, owning the Yoplait Everybody and Essence brands.

Glanbia Nutritionals is a supplier of whey proteins, vitamin and minerals and olive-based antioxidants, with the division employing more than 240 employees globally.

The company's share price rose 5 cent to €4.15 on the Iseq index of Irish shares yesterday, an increase of 1.2 per cent on the previous day.