LATAM
Vitamin Angels targets 'intergeneration cycle of malnutrition' in Central America
The nonprofit wants to strengthen its partnership network in Central America to produce transformative change among women and children facing malnutrition.
Speaking with NutraIngredients-LATAM, Elizabeth Carrera, program manager for Vitamin Angels in Latin America and the Caribbean, said the organization's work in Central America, much like its work worldwide, was focused on serving pregnant women, new mothers, and children under five at risk of malnutrition and underserved.
Throughout Central America, she said national health services reached just 70% of the population, so Vitamin Angels was “strategically focused” on reaching the remaining 30% - many of whom were considerably remote.
“In the case of most countries in Central America, Vitamin Angels is able to partner with both local organizations and government agencies in a joint effort to reduce the coverage gap and reach as many beneficiaries as possible,” she said.
In 2018, Vitamin Angels worked with around 60 field partners in Central America to provide vitamin A, prenatal multivitamins and albendazole (a deworming drug) to more than one million pregnant women and children under five.
Working in six of the region's countries – Belize, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Panama – the charity provided 975,000 women and children with high-dose vitamin A supplements and 160,635 pregnant women with multivitamins.
Europe
EFSA rejects yet another probiotic health claims
The European Food and Safety Authority’s (EFSA) Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (NDA) has ruled that evidence to support the immune health benefits of Heinz’s Nutrimune was not sufficient to establish a cause and effect relationship.
In response to a 2017 rejection by EFSA for the same product, Heinz questioned how much weight had been put on various elements of scientific substantiation in weighing the evidence. The company also mentioned inconsistencies of the process and the criteria used for the diagnosis of infections reported in human studies submitted was mentioned.
Heinz asked for clarification as to why certain studies cited in its dossier were deemed high risk of bias or not replicated.
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Asia
Blackmores Q3 profits plunge by 43%
Australia supplements giant Blackmores will overhaul its business after announcing weak Q3 results linked to slower domestic and China sales.
According to NutraIngredients-Asia, overall revenue decreased 4% from Q3 the previous year, while profits dropped 43%.
The company cited lower sales and greater investment in its brands.
Overall sales to Chinese consumers were estimated to be 6% lower on a year-on-year basis, despite China segment sales being up 19% on a quarterly basis.
In a letter addressed to shareholders, CEO Marcus Blackmore said the implementation of the PRC Electronic Commerce Law during the quarter resulted in lower sales to Chinese consumers through Australian retailers, as daigou and C2C sellers reviewed their operating models.
“Our results are not fantastic by any means,” Blackmore told NutraIngredients-Asia. “We struggled with our added growth and our China business, because we lost a lot of the daigou sales we used to have.”
“We've gotten comments like 'Blackmores didn't have enough new products', which I completely agree with. We've been light on new products for the last 12 months or more, and we just have to do a better job at that.”
