Foods for cognitive benefits

LECI-PS has been used in supplements for some time, but we can soon expect its application to food areas such as dairy, spreads and confectionery, as major companies plan launches.

A world of new functional food ideas should come to market over the course of the next 2 years, promoting an increase in memory in older people, concentration in younger people and potentially reducing hyperactivity in children. Degussa has launched a non-GMO version of its LECI-PS product, particularly necessary to meet EU regulations. LECI-PS has been used in supplements for some time, but we can soon expect its application to food areas such as dairy, spreads and confectionery, as major companies plan launches.

Degussa is already marketing a coffee flavored chocolate bar with 200 mg PS in Austria and Germany, developed and clinically studied by Giventis, a Germany based specialist for nutritional products, which is available under the trade name IQ PLUS. “This brain bar is improving the mental performance. The brain can manage in a more efficient way the abundance of information we are facing every day which means quicker, more precise and with less stress,” says Dr. med Kurt-Reiner Geiss of the Institute ISME.

Dr. Karl-Heinz Zirzow, Marketing Director Health & Nutrition of Degussa Food Ingredients told FoodIngredientsFirst that the need for a non-GMO product in Europe really came about in April 2004. Until new EU GMO labeling guidelines came about which meant that GMO containing products had to be labeled, the PCR (polymer chain reaction) test method had been enough to determine whether or not there were traces of a genetically modified crop in the product. Degussa had sourced its product from both the US and Brazil, but while the original LECI PS is still available (it is particularly successful in the US), the non-GMO product is completely sourced from Brazil. “A non-GMO version was at least a pre-requisite to continue our growth in Europe,” Zirzow said.

With new developments in PS applications such as millet based granules or extruded oat based pellets Degussa says that it is expanding its focus from elderly people to middle aged and even young adults.

www.degussa-foodingredients.com