Beneo's claims for ingredients receive positive EFSA opinion

Beneo said all Article 13.1 claims for Isomalt and Palatinose (isomaltulose) have been positively evaluated by EFSA within the 4th batch.

The claims relate to two areas in which the choice of food can make a difference: the maintenance of dental health and the concerns the reduction of post-prandial glycaemic response (low-glycaemic effect).

The Beneo-Institute however is realistic enough to know that there still many steps to take on this "claims journey".

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) stated that "the claimed effects are 'dental health', 'remineralisation of teeth', 'not cariogenic' and 'do not promote tooth decay' reflecting the scientific evidence as frequent consumption of sugars contributes to tooth demineralisation."

It concluded that consumption of foods/drinks containing Isomalt or Palatinose instead of easily fermentable carbohydrates like traditional sugars may help maintain tooth mineralization by decreasing tooth demineralization.

On the glycaemic claims filed for Isomalt and Palatinose EFSA established a cause and effect relationship between the consumption of foods/drinks containing isomalt or isomaltulose (Palatinose) instead of traditional sugars and a reduction in post-prandial blood glucose responses.

The results confirm the scientific substantiation for both functional carbohydrates and are a clear sign that EFSA acknowledges the advantage of using the two functional carbohydrates offer specific physiological characterisitics to improve the health related properties of the final product, for the benefit of the consumer.