The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has ruled that cocoa powder and dark chocolate can help improve blood circulation — a claim made by Barry Callebaut, the world’s largest maker of chocolate products.
The Swiss group said on July 17 that it had provided evidence to EFSA that eating 10g of dark chocolate or its equivalent in cocoa that were high in flavanols helped blood flow.
For the clinical studies it conducted to back up the claim, Barry Callebaut said it used a special process to make cocoa products that maintains the flavanols, which are usually mostly destroyed during conventional chocolate-making.
Photo: AFP
照片：法新社
If the European Commission signs off on the EFSA ruling, the company and its customers will have the right to use the health claim on packaging for products such as chocolate drinks, cereal bars and biscuits, the company said.
In an opinion posted on the EFSA website, a scientific panel concluded that a cause-and-effect relationship had been established between the consumption of cocoa flavanols and the maintenance of normal vasodilation, which aids blood flow.
(Reuters)
歐盟食品安全局（EFSA）裁定，可可粉與黑巧克力有助改善血液循環，與全球最大巧克力產品製造商百樂嘉利寶所宣稱的一樣。
這家瑞士集團七月十七日表示，該公司提供證據給EFSA，證據顯示，吃十公克黑巧克力或含高濃度黃烷醇的等量可可，有助血液流動。
百樂嘉利寶說，該公司為了支持這項說法進行臨床研究，使用特別的程序製造可可產品，保留在傳統巧克力製造過程中常被摧毀的黃烷醇。
這家公司說，如果歐盟執行委員會批准EFSA裁定，該公司與顧客有權在巧克力飲品、穀物棒與餅乾等產品的包裝上，標示這種健康聲明。
科學小組在張貼於EFSA網站的見解中總結道，攝取可可黃烷醇與維持正常血管舒張間有因果關係。血管舒張可增進血流。
（路透/翻譯：自由時報國際新聞中心）
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