-ORAFTI Active Food Ingredients, the world market leader for inulin and oligofructose, has obtained approval for the classification of Beneo™ inulin as a dietary fiber for labeling purposes in Canada.-

On March 3, 2006, Canada’s Health Products and Food Branch approved the classification of inulin as a dietary fiber in Canada, a decision that will allow ORAFTI to label its Beneo™ inulin range as a “dietary fiber.”

ORAFTI Active Food Ingredients is the worldwide market leader in production and marketing of chicory-based food ingredients Beneo™ inulin and oligofructose. ORAFTI has spearheaded extensive nutritional research into the efficacy of their ingredients, proving a range of benefits to the consumer.  Furthermore, ORAFTI has pioneered throughout the world, the classification of inulin and oligofructose as dietary fibre, and with the help of scientific research evidence, shown that inulin does belong to the dietary fibre complex. Health Canada’s decision to classify Beneo™inulin as a dietary fiber will allow ORAFTI’s Beneoä inulin range which is sold in Canada, to be labelled as a dietary fiber.

Health Canada’s decision to review the classification of Beneo™inulin was based on detailed analytical data, including:

·        Inulin occurring endogenously in plant foods meets the current definition of dietary fibre used by Health Canada.

·        On a dry matter basis, the concentration of inulin in the daily diet and the inulin in ORAFTI products are of the same order (of magnitude).

·        The overall chemical structure, composition and chain length distribution of native inulin (chicory root) are similar to the ones of the extracted and purified ORAFTI products.

Dominic Speleers, Vice President of Sales & Marketing from ORAFTI commented, “I am delighted to see that ORAFTI’s dedication to science and regulatory affairs has allowed us to get Beneo™ inulin approved as a Dietary Fiber in Canada. The Canadian food industry was waiting for this in order to reactivate many projects of new products. We will continue to support them with our range of services including consumer insight and communication.”

Health Canada is currently reviewing a decision on the classification and labelling of oligofructose, pending the completion of their review of definition and policies on dietary fiber.

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About ORAFTI Group
ORAFTI Group is a subsidiary of the Belgian agro-food group Raffinerie Tirlemontoise/ Tiense Suikerraffinaderij and is part of the ORAFTI/ PALATINIT Ingredients Group of Südzucker (Germany).

ORAFTI Group produces Beneo™ inulin and oligofructose, Beneo™ for animal nutrition, as well as Raftisweet® (fructose syrups), from chicory roots. ORAFTI Group's head office is in Tienen, Belgium and the company operates in more than 75 countries world wide, with production units in Oreye (Belgium), Pemuco (Chile), Wijchen (Netherlands) and Wijgmaal (Belgium). The ORAFTI Group also includes REMY INDUSTRIES, world leading producer of rice starches (Remy®/Remyline®/Remygel®), rice flours (Remyflo®) and rice proteins (Remypro®).

ORAFTI
101 Lindenwood Drive
Malvern, PA 19355
www.orafti.com