Lonza boosts FiberAid branding

The Swiss firm said bought the ingredient last year from US company Larex, and hopes the seal will inspire confidence that the product contains high quality ingredients and is trustworthy.

The move shows that other companies could take advantage of branding tactics to boost consumer interest and sales as well as relating the ingredient to the ingredient maker.

Lonza is also tapping into an increasing consumer demand for buying products derived from natural ingredients.

FiberAid has only this year been available in Europe as a raw material, a Lonza spokesperson said, but did not disclose sales figures.

Lonza has already introduced the seal for its ingredient Carnipure - a special grade of L-Carnitine.

The compound is used to transport long chain fatty acids across the mitochondrial membrane for subsequent fat breakdown and energy production, and is typically used to support all bodily functions that have a high energy demand.

Reto Renggli, director of marketing and sales for nutrition, said: " We are glad to now have a consistent look for our health ingredients, as recognisability is key.

The new branding concept also reflects the quality and reliability that make Lonza's nutrition products trusted by both our customers and the end consumers" .

Lonza has also launched a website to tell people about the benefits of FiberAid.

The soluble, tasteless and odourless prebiotic fibre can be added to food and beverage products to boost their fibre content.

A branched polysaccharide, FiberAid is extracted from western larch ( L occidentalis ) and tamarack larch trees using the company's patented water-wood-and-steam process.

FiberAid is said to have a beneficial effect on the gastrointestinal system, slowly fermenting to increase beneficial microflora like lactobacilli and bifidobacteria and decrease endogenous pathogenic bacteria.

When owned by Larex, clients who used the prebiotic in their products to date include Kraft, Pepsi, Coke, Procter & Gamble and Johnson & Johnson.

The company has said that the ingredient can be incorporated into 8oz beverages or single food servings to account for 25 percent of the daily reference value of fiber (25 grams based on a 2,000 calorie per day diet).

Prebiotic ingredients, or those that boost the growth of beneficial probiotic bacteria in the gut, are worth about €90 million in the European marketplace but are forecast to reach €179.7 million by 2010, according to Frost & Sullivan.

The biotech company announced last May that it expanded its nutritional ingredients portfolio with the acquisition of the larch arabinogalactan assets of US firm Larex.

In 2004 Larex was called "undoubtedly the market leader in the arabinogalactan segment" by Frost & Sullivan research analyst Haricharan Desai, when it won the Product Innovation award for the development of its FiberAid branded product.

The value of the acquisition was not released, but included intellectual property, processing technology, manufacturing operations and certain inventory and customer lists.

Lonza's plan to expand its nutrition portfolio kicked off the previous December with the acquisition of Nutrinova's DHA business, striking out from niacin, or vitamin B3, and the vitamin-like substance L-carnitine to food and supplement makers.