DuPont Nutrition Achieve EU Novel Food Approval for New Vitamin K2

EU Novel Food Approval Expands Market for Bone Health Benefits. Part of the DuPont Danisco range of ingredients, this product is a new unique commercial form of vitamin K2, entering the range as ActivK S, our pure vitamin K2 made by organic synthesis.

29 Mar 2012 --- DuPont Nutrition & Health is poised to bring a new health opportunity to the European food industry with this week’s EU approval of a new proprietary vitamin K2 product as a novel food.

Part of the DuPont Danisco range of ingredients, this product is a new unique commercial form of vitamin K2, entering the range as ActivK S, our pure vitamin K2 made by organic synthesis.

Food products and dietary supplements containing the vitamin qualify for an EU-approved bone health claim. Benefits for cardiovascular health are also well documented.

Thanks to the novel food approval, DuPont can now expand its ActivK portfolio in Europe with an additional high-value product.

“EU approval of this new, unique form of vitamin K2 creates tremendous opportunities for food and dietary supplement manufacturers to take vitamin K2 into mainstream application due to a better cost-in-use proposition. It opens up new horizons to enhance the health profile of their products and brands, and an important differentiator for our customers also is our scientific, regulatory and global application expertise on vitamin K2,” said Didier Carcano, vice president of health platforms at DuPont Nutrition & Health.

DuPont has developed a number of inspirational concepts that demonstrate the use of ActivK, which is already sold in Europe in its natural form. Stable under most processing conditions, the ActivK K2 vitamins are suitable for dairy and bakery products, beverages, cereals, fats and oils, nutritional bars, infant formula and dietary supplements.

This new unique form of vitamin K2 has been developed by Kappa Bioscience in Norway. In 2011, DuPont entered an agreement with Kappa to cooperate on expanding sales to global markets, and the new vitamin was launched in selected markets already last year.

Vitamin K is a group of fat-soluble vitamins known to be critical in blood coagulation. Vitamin K is divided into K1 (clotting activity) and K2, which also has extra hepatic activities. Vitamin K2 as menaquinon-7 (MK-7) has the highest bioavailability and proven effects on bone health (EFSA 13.1 Claim) and cardiovascular health. Vitamin K2 acts as co-factor for proteins involved in calcium metabolism.