The Florida-based supplier won EU approval under novel food ‘substantial equivalence’ rules in September – meaning its offering was near-identical to an already approved chia oil .
Its ‘Chia Gold’ contains 550 mg of ALA per gram of oil and is extracted using without solvents using ‘supercritical CO2 extraction’ and ‘O2B Peroxidation Blocker stabilisation technology’.
Approved categories include fats and oils at less than 10% of volume and food supplements up to 2 g/day.
“After the reception that Chia Gold has had in the US, we’re excited to be able to offer this ingredient in the European market,” said Sylvia de Jong, Valensa VP of sales & marketing.
ALA is approved under the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) for the maintenance of normal cholesterol levels and normal growth and development of children (with linoleic acid (LA)).
Nutrition Business Journal has estimated chia will be a €450m category in Europe by 2020.