The novelty wears off

Lycopene has been approved as a food colourant (E160d), but LycoRed wants to market its lycopene oleoresin (a natural extract of tomato lipids containing phytonutrients) as a health ingredient to fortify yoghurts, cheese, bread, sausages, cereal bars and other products.

The delay while all the Member States reviewed the application was "incredibly frustrating", said Dr Zohar Nir, vice president of new product development and scientific affairs at the firm.

"It took the FDA (US Food & Drug Administration) six years to approve lycopene as a colour, so I'm not holding my breath."

It was not clear which health claims about lycopene, a powerful antioxidant, would gain approval under the new Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, he said. However, the ability to make hard health claims on product packs was not a pre-requisite for commercial success, he insisted. "There are other channels we can use to communicate with consumers.

"Awareness of the health benefits of lycopene is growing all the time. The key thing about lycopene is that it reduces oxidative stress, which is a major factor in a range of chronic diseases from arthritis to heart disease. It protects your cells from free radicals."

Unlike rivals DSM Nutritional Products and BASF, which produce synthetic lycopene, LycoRed's Lyc-O-Mato product contained a variety of phytonutrients that appeared to work in synergy, said Nir. "The human intervention studies are all on tomato complex, not on isolated lycopene."

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