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Xusane de Miguel

VK Comunicación

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2009/11/9

Benecol from Kaiku gets green light from new European norm

The ester from vegetable stanol, the ingredient for reducing cholesterol and used in Kaiku’s Benecol product, is one of the first food ingredients to receive the green light from the European Commission as having properties for reducing the risk of contracting a disease, the first authorisation granted within the new European Regulation on nutrition and health claims on foods that expressly recognises a role of certain products in reducing the risk of contracting diseases - a veritable turning point in community legislation.

Kaiku Benecol thus has the legal backing to make the following declaration: “Esters from vegetable stanol have been shown to reduce cholesterol in the blood. High cholesterol is a risk factor in the onset of coronary disease”. The European Commission states expressly that this beneficial effect occurs if a minimum of 2 grams of vegetable stanol are ingested per day - the exact dose in just one small bottle of Benecol from Kaiku.

The new European legal framework (European Commission Regulation 1924/2006) on nutrition and health claims on foods will mean a drastic change in the use of advertising messages for foods. Consumers will especially benefit from the new norm, given that they will receive clearer information from the labelling and the advertising of the products in their shopping basket, receiving a guarantee that if a foodstuff proffers to have certain beneficial effects for health, these have to be scientifically proven and expressly validated by European bodies

According to Ms Arantxa Errazkin, Director of Research and Development at Kaiku, this recognition means a new back-up for the efficacy of Benecol in reducing cholesterol, given that it boasts more than 60 clinical studies carried out by prestigious bodies and hospitals, both public and private.

In 2003, Benecol from Kaiku was the leading cholesterol reducer in Spain. Although other brands have entered the market subsequently to compete in this category, Benecol is the only product that contains esters from vegetable stanol, and is exclusively marketed by Kaiku as a result of the technological agreement with Finnish company, Raisio. Apart from Spain the product is found in more than 30 countries in the five continents.