Lipofoods Launches Palm-Free, Water-Dispersible Phytosterols

25 Apr 2017 --- Lipofoods, SLU, has launched its palm free Lipophytol phytosterol system, a highly concentrated, water-dispersible source of plant sterols in an easy-to-use format designed to support cardiovascular health. Phytosterols are steroid compounds derived from plants. Comparable to cholesterol in the structural behavior and functionality, phytosterols compete with cholesterol during absorption in the digestive system and can help decrease cholesterol uptake and lower cholesterol in the blood.

While phytosterols have been shown to help lower total serum cholesterol, due to their insolubility in water incorporating them into food and beverage formulations has been challenging.

“Lipophytol provides an innovative delivery system with a demonstrated ability to increase phytosterol solubility in food and beverage matrices,” says Isabel Gomez, Marketing Manager for Lipofoods. “It enables the easy incorporation of phytosterols into a range of food and beverage products. Processors can avoid preparing the emulsion and thus can improve the manufacturing processes in terms of time and costs.”

This new Lipophytol formulation was developed without the use of palm oil derivatives, based on growing consumer concerns over refined palm oil and awareness of the ecological impact of standard palm oil cultivation. The use of palm oil free products is “an increasing trend in the market, so Lipophytol is a good alternative to existing ways of incorporating plant sterols into the foods,” a spokesperson for the company told NutritionInsight.

Lipophytol is a fine powder in a ready-to-use formulation, which does not in any way affect the flavor or texture of food products, the spokesperson says. 

“Just pour it into, and mix it into the food application,” Gomez says. “Sterol esters have to be emulsified, so manufacturers should increase the temperature of the formulations in order to add sterol esters appropriately.”

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has approved the following claims for a daily intake of 1.5-2.4 g of plant sterols: plant sterols have been shown to lower/reduce blood cholesterol; plant sterols/stanols contribute to the maintenance of normal blood cholesterol levels.

Lipophytol helps to reach the daily dosage of phytosterols with less product amount in comparison to sterol esters. 

“Sterol ester contains 60% of plant sterols while Lipophytol contains 90% so less product can be added to final products to achieve the same results,” Gomez adds.

Studies in vivo have shown that Lipophytol is more effective than raw phytosterols in decreasing CVD-associated risk factors of a high fat diet. These results indicate that Lipophytol decreases the levels of triglycerides more effectively than raw phytosterols in the long term. Altogether, the results suggest that Lipophytol is more effective than raw phytosterols decreasing the hypertriglyceridemia and against atherogenesis under a high fat diet, demonstrating microencapsulation technology enhances the activity of phytosterols.

Lipofoods will introduce Lipophytol at Vitafoods, Geneva, on 9-11 May.