13 June 2012 --- The European Commission has accepted the health claims of lactulose among a list of 222 other health claims.

This list based on sound scientific advice will be used throughout the EU and will also help to remove misleading health claims from the market before the end of 2012.

The initial draft list contained 4,185 claims to be evaluated, as a result of a consolidation process carried out by the Commission, after first examining over 44,000 health claims supplied by the Member States.

Lactulose is an innovative, key food ingredient in Solvay's galactofructose Solactis, a product the company clams ‘provides better performing, safer and health-efficient food worldwide.’ Galactofructose Solactis can now be referred to as a food ingredient compliant with the demanding EU Health Claim regulation (Regulation 1924/2006)1.

“The inclusion of our innovative ingredient into this EU list is a great achievement for our team. The digestive health benefits of galactofructose are scientifically proven and clearly recognized. Digestive health remains the line of food and health products which is the most sought after in the world,” says Leopold Demiddeleer, Senior Vice President of Solvay Future Businesses.

At the Anuga Food Tech Expo in Cologne (March 27-30) Solvay had presented this innovation within its range of food ingredients, including other renowned products such as BICAR, Rhovanil, Caso and Interox. Altogether, Solvay realized sales of approximately €200 M last year in life nutrition ingredients.

Pascal RONFARD, Program Manager at Solvay Future Businesses of the Innovation Centre: “Galactofructose Solactis is a biosourced ingredient. It delivers its benefits by working selectively on the bifidobacteria in the digestive system, and is also regulating transit. As it is coming from milk derivatives, far from Solvay traditional chemistry, we keep an open mind on how to speed up the development of this growing activity.”