Dispatches from Health Ingredients Europe, Amsterdam

Naturex unveils food concepts for weight management at HiE 2014

08-Dec-2014 - Last updated on 08-Dec-2014 at 13:57 GMT

“Oat beta-glucans are the base of the cake and then we added cinnamon and apple powder. So it’s like an apple and cinnamon muffin,” said Leslie Lannebere from Naturex.

Naturex has developed prototype products using oat beta-glucans and glucomannan that can carry EFSA-approved claims relating to weight management and glycaemic responses.

France-based natural ingredients and botanicals supplier Naturex has developed a Mug Cake based on beta-glucan, which has a health claim in Europe for reducing the post-prandial glycaemic response as well as Slimming Noodles that contain glucomannan that are approved for 'weight loss contribution.'

Leslie Lannebere, Business Manager at Naturex, told NutraIngredients: “Oat beta-glucans are the base of the cake and then we added cinnamon and apple powder. So it’s like an apple and cinnamon muffin.”

Paul Janthial, food and beverage business unit director added: "Mug Cake is part of the functional concept store we are presenting here, which we divided into three categories. This is part of the weight management category. In the metabolic syndrome the two main problems are obesity and blood sugar."

Clients using this concept can make a blood sugar control claim even if they are small or medium-size companies with insufficient resources to do trials and work towards similar claims themselves, said Naturex.

“That’s our main goal to illustrate the fact that it is easy to go for such a positioning with ingredients. We have a palet of ingredients which carry such a claim," added Janthial.

Slimming noodles

The ‘Slimming Noodles’ concept is enriched with glucomannan, a dietary fibre from konjac. According to EFSA, products containing glucomannan are able to carry the claim ‘contributes to weight loss’.

“The European weight management sector was worth $2.8bn in 2013, according to Euromonitor. It is a thriving category and the key to success in this market is to create products that help people lose weight and maintain a healthy weight while also offering convenience, delicious taste and a pleasant eating experience," said Lannebere.

Lannebere added that the rules around making claims are not as strict and difficult to make as it may seem and there is room for innovation.

Naturex offers potential clients a visit to its SPRINGlabs in Avignon, France, where they have a chance to work on final formulation themselves.