EFSA approves oat beta-glucan claim

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claims panel has approved a health claim linking consumption of 3g of oat beta glucans per day with improved cholesterol levels.

The article 14 claim was submitted by Swiss firm CreaNutrition and states: “Oat beta-glucan has been shown to lower/reduce blood cholesterol. Blood cholesterol lowering may reduce the risk of (coronary) heart disease”.

CreaNutrition’s dossier contained 22 references including three meta-analyses and 19 randomised controlled trials.

The opinion can be found here.