Cargill Introduces New Heart-Healthy Chocolate Beverage Prototype with CoroWise Plant Sterols

At IFT, Cargill demonstrated another way that our customers can capture new market share with CoroWise plant sterols — by delivering a heart-health benefit in a delicious, great tasting chocolate beverage.

Aug 5 2010 --- Cargill featured a heart-healthy chocolate beverage prototype containing CoroWise plant sterols at the Institute of Food Technologists (IFT) Food Expo in Chicago earlier this month. The prototype is a creamy, dark chocolate beverage in a four-ounce package that contains 0.4 grams of CoroWise plant sterols, a level that supports a U.S. Food and Drug Administration ( FDA) approved heart-health claim.

Heart health is a key driver of many of today's consumer buying decisions. Almost 107 million Americans have elevated cholesterol, and 77 percent of consumers have used heart healthy foods in the past year. Backed by a U.S. FDA health claim and significant scientific research demonstrating their effectiveness at lowering bad cholesterol, plant sterols are capturing more and more consumer attention.

"At IFT, Cargill demonstrated another way that our customers can capture new market share with CoroWise plant sterols by delivering a heart-health benefit in a delicious, great tasting chocolate beverage," said Carol Lowry, application scientist, Cargill Health & Nutrition. "It wasn't so long ago that consumers associated healthy eating with sacrificing taste. But today, health-conscious consumers expect rich, satisfying experiences from healthier foods."

CoroWise plant sterols do not impact taste or texture, so incorporating them into foods and beverages doesn't affect the consumer taste experience. As such, manufacturers can use them to support heart health labeling in products like Cargill's chocolate beverage prototype.

"The chocolate beverage prototype with CoroWise plant sterols demonstrates how Cargill is leveraging consumer trends in new and surprising ways to help our customers build brands and capture market share. CoroWise plant sterols are already well known in applications such as juices, breads and multivitamins," adds Terri Vanderpol, senior scientist, Cargill Beverage Applications Laboratory. "Considering that about 40 percent of the population already associates dark chocolate with heart health benefits, the pairing of chocolate and CoroWise plant sterols makes a lot of sense."

CoroWise plant sterols are incorporated into a growing number of foods, beverages and dietary supplements. Cargill supports cobranded partners and their CoroWise plant sterols-containing products through its comprehensive Healthcare Professional Outreach program. The program includes a Premier sponsorship with the American Dietetic Association as well as a Consumer Outreach program that offers media coverage and sponsorships with the American Heart Association.