Finnish company Teriaka said this week that it has received permission from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) allowing the use of the phytosterol heart health claim with its product Diminicol.
The FDA action will open up the booming US functional food market to the small company. Diminicol, patented in the US and other markets, contains plant sterols in a microcrystalline structure, which have been shown to reduce cholesterol. It is GRAS in the US for use in spreads, soft cheeses, yoghurts, milk or juice drinks, snack bars and white breads.
"This will really open up the market for us," managing director Bengt Hallsten, told NutraIngredients.com at Vitafoods yesterday. "We have just started discussions with manufacturers in the US and are also seeing strong interest in Asia, especially in functional drinks."
Teriaka is still waiting for novel foods clearance from Europe, expected this summer. Once achieved, the small firm will be competing with the likes of Unilever and Raisio's Benecol, another Finnish venture, which has struggled to make a profit until recently.
"We have a totally different product," explained Hallsten. "Because it is completely natural, we can avoid all the chemical steps, such as the costly esterification process. This means we will have a different cost structure when we enter the market."
In Diminicol, free plant sterols or stanols are partly dissolved in water and food fat. The manufacturing process is said to be inexpensive, with the end product easy to formulate into foods.
Teriaka is a division of the Paulig group, a family-owned Finnish coffee and seasonings company. It also makes the herb-derived antioxidant ingredient Oxiant, which has a proven effect on humans, according to the company.