Loders Croklaan said it anticipated “significant growth” in infant formula sales by taking the enzyme gestated, vegetable fat ingredient launched in 1994 directly under its moniker.
“With the integration of Betapol in our product range of specialty fats, IOI-Loders Croklaan is planning for significant growth in the infant nutrition segment”, said Loek Favre, chief operating officer at Loders Croklaan Europe.
Fire sale
The move comes as Lipid Nutrition brands Clarinol conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Korean pine nut sourced PinnoThin and marine-sourced, omega-3 offering Marinol were sold yesterday to New Jersey firm Stepan Company which has formed Stepan Lipid Nutrition to house the brands and centralise its nutrition activity.
Stepan has said it will open a Dutch sales office for the ingredients with the weight management-body toning offerings Clarinol and PinnoThin notably recording only modest European sales in the face of long struggles with European novel foods and health claims regulations.
Lipid Nutrition nor Loders Croklaan were available for comment at the time of publication but market analysts observed the EU regulatory roadblocks had at least partly motivated Loders Croklaan’s decision to sell Lipid Nutrition’s core brands.
Betapol
Betapol, sold mostly in the EU and Asia, is marketed as having a, “special triglyceride structure that matches the one found in mother’s milk very closely.”
“Betapol has been developed in order to overcome the problems associated with poor fatty acid absorption from infant formula and the negative consequences of this on energy supply, stool consistency and bone development,” Loders Croklaan said.
Lipid Nutrition has carried out studies in animals and newborn babies that have shown all the fatty acids in Betapol - including palmitic acid - are well absorbed into the bloodstream, and only tiny quantities are lost in the faeces.
This therefore improves the absorption of dietary calcium and reduces the amount of calcium lost in the stools, leading to greater bone mineral density.
Read more about the Lipid Nutrition break-up on NutraIngredients-USA.com today.