New ‘fat-busting’ foods to launch in 2010

At least two ‘significant launches’ of functional foods on a body-shaping platform should hit shelves in 2010 as food and drink firms start to experiment with Prolibra: a milk mineral complex claimed to promote fat loss and retain lean muscle mass.

Supplier Glanbia Nutritionals is in advanced negotiations with several food and drink companies keen to incorporate the whey-derived milk mineral complex into new products, revealed business development manager Paul O’Mahony.
Prolibra, which benefits from having a consumer-friendly ingredients declaration (‘whey protein milk mineral complex’), unlike many other weight management ingredients, is a proprietary blend of dairy ingredients including whey protein and calcium, which have individually been shown in several clinical studies to help maintain lean muscle mass and reduce body fat, said O’Mahony.
However, there have also been three human intervention studies directly on Prolibra, which support its body-shaping claims, he said. “Prolibra is different to other weight management solutions such as conjugated linoleic acid [which is claimed to help people decrease the amount of fat stored and burn more fat]. Prolibra reduces body fat while maintaining lean body mass. This essentially means that a significant portion of the weight lost (79%) is as fat rather than protein from muscle.”
More importantly, most of the fat lost was in the trunk, where carrying excess weight was particularly dangerous, he said. “Prolibra is not just about weight loss per se but about toning and slimming at the same time. This is where retention of lean muscle comes in. Also as Prolibra focuses on the trunk fat area it fits with the consumer image of dropping a jean size and improving overall body composition.”
An application to make a health claim about Prolibra has been lodged under article 13.1 of the EU health claims Regulation and still awaits assessment, he said. However, if it is rejected (as two thirds of article 13.1 claims have been to date), Glanbia would consider resubmitting an application and conducting further clinical studies if necessary: “We’ve spent five years researching this ingredient and we are very confident in the science behind it.”
Prolibra, which is effective at 24g/day, is currently sold as a ready-to-mix powder that consumers can add to drinks, smoothies and other products in the US, Australia and Europe, he said. However, the focus was to work with food and drinks companies to add it to finished products: “Prolibra has a clean, natural flavour and is easy to use in ready-to-mix beverages, nutritional bars, smoothies, dairy beverages and fresh dairy products.

"Glanbia Nutritionals has the added benefit that we have a separate solutions business based in Middlesbrough that has core competence in manufacturing bars, powders and beverages. We are thereby able to offer end product solutions in these areas incorporating Prolibra to suit different markets and tastes.”