More added to DSM Fabuless range
The company said Fabuless DE (dry emulsion) is suitable for instant powder applications including beverage powder sachets, meal replacement shakes, protein shakes, dry soup mixes and beverages.
Exciting times
Product manager, Emily Tellers, said the extension of the Fabuless range was “really exciting” for DSM and the diet foods market and the Dutch company was in collaboration with a number of major food companies operating in the diet foods sector.
“The meal replacement market in the US is far ahead of other markets and we expect to launch a product there very soon,” Tellers told NutraIngredients.com. “We are also looking into several European markets where meal replacement products also perform very well.”
Fabuless debuted in Spain in late 2006 in a Campina yoghurt called Optimel Control that claimed it “helps you eat less”.
That product has gone on to be a success for the two companies, is present in many European markets and was recently launched by Campina in Russia and Austria, with the Russian launch involving co-branding, an option DSM leaves up to its customers to employ if they wish.
Optimel Control sells at about four times the price of regular Optimel products.
Fabuless is present in products in more than 20 countries.
Fabulous beginnings
Fabuless first saw the light of day in a yoghurt in Sweden in 1998 under the name Olibra when it was in the hands of Swedish start-up, Lipid Technologies Provider, which DSM acquired in 2006 after initially investing in the company in 2003.
Fabuless DEis priced slightly higher than DSM’s liquid Fabuless version due to greater processing requirements.
“With weight loss ingredients ranging from €0.01 to €1 per serving, we are very competitively priced,” Teller said, but she wouldn’t reveal the ingredient’s pricing.
Fabuless DE forms an “oil-in-water emulsion” when added to any liquid.
Clinicals
Clinical trials have demonstrated Fabuless can reduce feelings of hunger by delaying digestion of palm oil droplets due to an oat galactolipid-coating.
A recently published trial in the International Journal of Obesity found Fabuless, when formulated in yoghurt, stopped weight gain after weight loss, says a randomised, placebo-controlled, double-blind trial.
DSM says that by holding these oil droplets in the small intestine, an 'appetite satisfied' signal is sent to the brain.
Weight loss claims
DSM has submitted health claims in the weight loss area and is awaiting verdicts from the European Commission.
Tellers said the GlaxoSmithKline weight loss petition in the US, for which the six-month public consultation period was due to close at the end of October, should not succeed because while obesity could be classified as a disease, being overweight should not.
The GSK petition seeks to re-classify weight loss claims from their current status as structure-function claims to disease claims.
“There is no need for this move and via our trade association the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN), we have let the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) know this.”
In May, DSM launched Fabuless on the US market in a product called SlimShots, a 0.32oz vanilla-flavored mini-shot, that was about to be backed by its second major TV advertising campaign.
The SlimShots brand name has been on sale in a number of European markets for several years as well as New Zealand, Australia and other Asian markets but these are not related to the US launch.
The products are marketed by a US company called IdeaVillage and are available in specialty outlets as well as general retail outlets like supermarkets.
The global market for weight management products is estimated to be more than €7bn.
