PeptoPro gets gold at Hi Europe
yesterday, with a French produced fat-binding extract Neopuntia
coming in second. The bronze award was given to Ingredia for its
stress relieving peptide Lactium.
The awards, held for the first time at the health ingredients trade show, were selected from 26 submissions.
The six products to reach the shortlist had to have "an innovative character that caught the attention of the committee," according to the judges.
PeptoPro contains casein fragments that stimulate insulin release in the body, allowing glucose to be absorbed faster from the blood into the muscle cells. The ingredient, to be marketed in a new range of products worldwide by Europe's biggest sports nutrition company Haleko, is likely to be joined by additional new peptides over coming months.
"This is just the first in a line of 10-12 new products to launch over the next two years," business unit director of PeptoPro, Richard Calk, told NutraIngredients.com.
Silver winner BioSerae, which started producing its Neopuntia cactus extract in 1999, is aiming to step up competition in the global chitosan market with its fat-binding fibre.
The product, which has approval from the UK's Vegetarian Society, has compared favourably to chitosan in a recently concluded trial, according to the firm.
Lactium, winner of the bronze award, is the result of 12 years of research, investigating the relationship between milk consumption and its calming effect on babies. Ingredia used a well-known digestive enzyme to develop a patented milk casein hydrolysate that it claims will offer higher value sales than all of its other milk proteins and dairy ingredients.
Potential applications include sleeping aids and products to help the symptoms experienced by people trying to stop smoking or those on a diet.