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Funky or functional! Or both?

FDA examines label claims for foods with novel ingredients as new category of foods continues to grow.

Pw 8972 Enviga

Functional foods are on fire. Well, at least some of their packages are, like Enviga, the new calorie-burning drink from Coca-Cola Co./Nestlé S.A, which boasts a graphic flame set into green tea leaves on the package’s primary panel.

Enviga is one of the most prominent new additions to the functional foods category. Marketers spike these foods and drinks with dietary supplements, minerals or other natural ingredients in order to make either a structure/function or health claim.

Enviga contains green tea extracts and caffeine leading to its claim that drinking three cans per day results in the consumer burning more calories than he or she gains by consuming the drink, the so-called “negative calorie effect.” The drink is being introduced in test markets in the New York City and Philadelphia metro areas and is set to launch nationwide in early 2007.

 

‘Loud labels’

 

The packages for these products are often visually stunning, as are their label claims, according to consumer groups who are trying to convince the Food and Drug Administration to hose down the category’s loud labels. The FDA has sent warning letters to a few companies such as Masterfoods, a Mars candy division, whose Cocoa Via chocolate bars drew the FDA’s attention because of label claims trumpeting their heart benefits.

Mars calls its CocoaVia line “heart healthy snacks” because they are formulated with cocoa flavanols, which are antioxidant compounds thought to influence factors associated with clotting that promote a healthy blood flow. Mars says some studies suggest that cocoa flavanols can improve the health of blood vessels and reduce the oxidation of LDL cholesterol that can lead to clogged arteries.

According to research firm Euromonitor Intl., the U.S. packaged functional/fortified foods market was worth $6.3 billion at retail in 2005, and is expected to grow to $7.6 billion by 2010. That vitality helps explain why Anheuser-Busch Inc. recently agreed to allow some of its wholesalers to distribute Hansen Natural Corp. energy drinks such as Monster Energy, which has been on the market since 2002.

The Monster drink, whose packaging looks like it was designed by Count Dracula, contains such things as panax ginseng root extract and guarana seed extract.

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