Fourteen years after Unilever spent $2.3bn (€1.7bn) to buy Slim-Fast, it has sold up for an undisclosed sum to a private equity player. Analyst and author Julian Mellentin tracks the decline of a mega-brand and considers what he sees as a category in...
France’s food safety agency (ANSES) has put itself at scientific odds with the EU’s central food science authority by concluding data is lacking to back plant sterols and stanols for cholesterol reduction.
EFSA has adopted its opinion on the essential infant formula composition following a period of public consultation which saw nearly 400 comments stream in on the likes of omega-3 form DHA (docosahexaenoic acid), probiotics, fluoride and sucrose's...
Specialised Nutrition Europe (SNE) said it was disappointed that certain nutrients were deemed "unnecessary" in the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA) recent draft opinion on infant formula.
The evidence has grown so strong for the best-documented probiotic strains that a generic digestive health claim should exist, according to a consensus statement from leading international researchers published this week in Nature Reviews: Gastroenterology...
The hot market for functional foods shows no signs of cooling off, according to longtime industry consultant Jeff Hilton. In his view a number of factors will combine to drive continued growth.
Probiotics isolated from Mongolian dairy products could alleviate allergy symptoms through intestinal immunity and helper cell balance, research using mice has suggested.
Dispatches from the IPA World Congress in Athens, Greece
Evidence is building that links the gut microbiome and brain function and ‘psychobiotics’ are at the heart of that, says a leading Irish researcher working in the field for more than five years.
A Scottish public health conference has been cancelled after senior NHS figures urged attendees to boycott the event in protest against its commercial sponsor, Nestlé.
Spanish supplier Biosearch Life has signed a deal with an Austrian pharma firm to supply its breast milk probiotic-based strain to food supplements in 10 central and eastern European countries.
DuPont-Danisco has won official approval for probiotic-based gut health claims based on its strains in Switzerland after working with a local retailer.
Dispatches from the IPA World Congress in Athens, Greece
France’s formally buoyant multi-billion euro probiotic yoghurt market will shed €420m between now and 2018 directly because of tough EU health claim laws, according to new analysis that isolates ‘the health claims effect’ for the first time.
Strong growth in the Americas and Asia is helping the probiotics industry to strong success, while the European market recovers from regulatory challenges by focusing on blends and 'piggybacking claims', say probiotics business experts.
Dispatches from the IPA World Congress in Athens, Greece
The EU’s central food science agency will next month open a consultation on immune and gut health that will inform a revised guidance that could come before year’s end and may appease sector anxiety.
“This has to be one of the most stupid regulatory rulings that I have seen.”
Cholesterol-battling plant stanol-based Benecol has been busted in the UK for exaggerating TV advert claims even though they were based on UK National Health Service (NHS), British Heart Foundation (BHF) and World Health Organization (WHO) data.
Danish supplier Chr Hansen has launched a forum to disseminate and share information on camel cheese and milk production to generate global support and potential revenue for small-scale camel owners in Northern Africa.
Consuming probiotics may decrease the duration of common upper respiratory tract infections (URTI) by up to a day, compared to placebo, according to findings published in the British Journal of Nutrition.
Functional foods weathered the global economic recession better than most food categories despite a high product failure rate, according to a US-based branding and market expert.
Nick Henson is the Reading-based associate director at the International Food Network (IFN), a key player in the EU’s new multi-million euro, multi-partner Metabolic Syndrome-battling project, PATHWAY-27, that has health claim victories trained in its...
Exclusive documentary preview: MicroWarriors Special edition
NutraIngredients went to LA recently to question two leading probiotic academics about probiotics and the microbiome and which we present exclusively here. The interviews form part of a new documentary to be narrated by Leonard Nimoy, better known as...
DreamPak’s international sales director tells Ben Bouckley that brands must differentiate to grow in a crowded US beverage enhancers fixture and tips tea, coffee and smoothies to lead the charge.
There is light at the end of the tunnel for a European whey wholesaler, as a long-running dispute over EU import duties on milk fat in whey protein is finally coming to an end.
Finnish dairy and ingredients giant Valio has inked a deal with major Norwegian food and drink maker Tine to license its LGG probiotic strain in Tine’s Biola juice range.
Low & fat-free milk consumption can reduce the likelihood of osteoarthritis (OA), researchers at Brigham & Women’s Hospital in Boston, Massachusetts have found.
Food manufacturers have pampered to health-conscious Europeans with a raft of new fruit-based product launches in 2013, with overall fruit ingredient launches up 22% over the preceding year, according to Innova Market Insights.
“Which way up was the umbrella? Did this review collect knowledge or shield us from it?”
The ‘umbrella’ review of vitamin D studies that found a myriad of health links for the sunshine vitamin were unconfirmed in the scientific literature, has been criticised for containing too many flawed studies that warped the overall findings.
SIG Combibloc is predicting a bright future for the dairy drink with bits category in Brazil following the launch of the latest "drinksplus product" - chocolate milk containing flakes of coconut.
Americans are often described as lagging behind their European counterparts when it comes to awareness of probiotics, but the growth potential in the US market is “huge”, says leading supplier DuPont.
Companies that manufacture probiotic products can learn much from other fast-moving-consumer-good (FMCG) firms like shower gel, pharmaceutical and smoothie makers in NPD, an expert says.
Join us on March 20 for a free online event devoted to filling technologies including aseptic, ESL and high pressure processing (HPP) that also teases out their packaging and branding implications
Vitamin D is important for thenormal development of bones and teeth among babies, infants, children and adults, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found in a new article 14 opinion.
Arla’s lactose-free TV advert is not misleading, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has concluded after receiving complaints from dairy-allergic consumers.
The CEO of UK beverage brand Twist believes he could score a smash hit with an espresso coffee and whey protein-based drink that you just add water to.
The founder of the International Probiotics Association (IPA) has called on the Global Alliance for Probiotics (GAP) to work with it to develop the science and dossiers that can win health claims in Europe and elsewhere.
The market for probiotic yoghurt in 20 key European Union markets will fall 4.5% in the five years between now and 2018, but the overall sector trend remains positive, Euromonitor International analyst Ewa Hudson told a packed Probiota congress in Amsterdam...
Two grams of plant sterols or plant stanols per day in functional foods can help manage cholesterol for those with moderate heart disease risk and who are taking statin drugs, the European Atherosclerosis Society (EAS) has said.
Infant formulas fortified with nutrients like prebiotics and probiotics and omega-3s do not provide, “a clear benefit as compared to control formula”, says a report published this week by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
“It's time industry started legal challenges against rulings like this.”
A Danone-Nutricia TV campaign for its Cow & Gate fortified follow-on milk formula has been banned in the UK in a ruling one EU food law expert called ‘bizarre’.
“I get personal because they [EFSA] get personal to me"
Veteran probiotic researcher professor Gregor Reid is not a happy man. It’s time the probiotic community fought back against those forces that have for too long denied a perfectly valid body of nutrition science in the form of commercial claims. It’s...
The term ‘probiotic’ may be banned in the European Union – along with its cousin ‘prebiotic’ – but sales remain steady, and the global picture is buoyant, says leading analyst, Euromonitor International.
In the wake of new legislation permitting the use of goats' milk protein in the manufacture of infant and follow-on formula, the head of the British Specialist Nutrition Association (BNSA) has questioned whether British goats can produce enough milk...
With 2013 fast drawing to a close and 2014 just around the corner, we took the chance to catch up with analysts and experts at Mintel to ask them what their highlights from this year have been ... and a few predictions for what might be in store in the...
