Speaking to FoodNavigator-USA at the IFT show about its new Cardi-O-Mato oleoresin, LycoRed's VP business development for North America Doug Lynch said that customers are also beginning to explore ingredients that can reduce levels of oxidized LDL cholesterol - a biomarker seen as a more useful predictor of risk for heart disease than total or LDL-cholesterol.
Cardi-O-Mato standardizes to six tomato phytonutrients, and has been shown to reduce ox LDL levels, support endothelial health, provide antioxidant support, and help maintain healthy blood pressure levels, said Lynch.
“It’s about multi-pathway cardiovascular support. We’ve conducted five clinical trials covering safety and efficacy, the latest of which was a large human clinical trial with 150 people, so we’ve got some very robust data.”
Tomatoes are already associated in people’s minds with the Mediterranean diet
He added: “15 years ago LycoRed was able to extract the benefits of the tomato into a concentrated, GRAS complex called Lyc-O-Mato. It has multiple tomato phytonutrients, but is standardized to lycopene.
“Cardi-O-Mato represents an enhancement of that technology in that we are now able to naturally standardize to five other phytonutrients as well, and guarantee that the lycopene and phytosterols are in a 1:1 relationship. In this way, we can ensure a complex which is optimized for cardiovascular health.”
Cardi-O-Mato has initially been targeted at dietary supplement customers, but food and beverage manufacturers have also shown interest in the GRAS ingredient, he said. “It works well in everything from tomato pastes to soups.”
Asked whether the food industry is ready for new cardio health ingredients, he said:
“The food and beverage industry can be pretty conservative, but tomatoes are already associated in people’s minds with the Mediterranean diet, so there is no reason why this shouldn’t have mass appeal.”
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