The Tomato Foundation Health Claim Project – Partnership / Funding update

Why does a supplement made exclusively from tomato paste have an EFSA health claim, but not the tomato paste it’s made from?

Raised: 73,500€. Target: 270,400€.

The expansion of the Tomato Foundation Health Claim Project Consortium continues – rallying support from companies within the tomato industry global supply chain. The project focuses on obtaining an EFSA health claim for tomato paste/tomato products and improved blood flow – based on an existing EFSA health claim for a tomato supplement, awarded in 2009.

Consortium partners: Morning Star Packing Company / Kagome Co., Ltd. / Kagome USA, Inc. / Mutti S.p.A. / HIT Group / Assan Foods / Ingomar Packing Company / Integrated Supply Solutions SL. / Concentrated Solutions Inc. / Bösch Boden Spies GmbH & Co. KG / Agrofusion / Neil Jones Food Company / SADAFCO / CCFIA (China Canned Food Industry Association) / WPTC (World Processing Tomato Council) / AMITOM (Mediterranean International Association of the Processing Tomato)

Research group: SSICA (Stazione Sperimentale per l’Industria delle Conserve Alimentari) / Universidad Complutense de Madrid / NIZO food research BV / Caledonian Science Press Ltd.

Next steps – The product study: The Tomato Foundation invites collaboration, participation and support for the next step in the project, which is the tomato paste and product sample study. Samples from multiple locations will be tested.

For EFSA validation, a product study is needed to demonstrate consistent and sufficient levels of bioactives in tomato paste and consumer products. The health claim for Fruitflow dictates bioactive levels fixed by production standards. Processed tomato products are already standardised by the Codex Alimentarius for Natural Soluble Solid Content (NTSS). Therefore, the foundation’s new study will target bioactive content per standard serving.

An independent feasibility study produced by Nizo Food Research strongly suggests that the same bioactive content as in a single dose of Fruitflow is found in 12g tomato paste (30 % NTSS) and 70ml tomato juice (5 % NTSS).

The product study aims to show that, regardless of regional variation, the lower range of bioactive compound levels in standard servings of tomato products remain consistently above the level set by a single dose of Fruitflow. The study will be carried out by the SSICA food research institute – in Parma, Italy.

All consumer products that are tested in the study – and pass for sufficient bioactive content – will be awarded a licence of use for the health claim.

Only project consortium companies will be able to use this health claim for their products.

Full information on the project can be found here: www.tomatofoundation.org