Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition: Creating Advances

Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition, Wormerveer, The Netherlands, is the very young offspring of its 110-year-old parent company Loders Croklaan. Built from Loders Croklaan’s fats and oils business, Lipid Nutrition became a reality as a business unit in 1999 based on the expertise the company had on the health components of fats and oils. Annet Bolsenbroek, marketing manager, expanded on the reason for starting the lipid nutrition division. “When this particular business unit was established we focused on finding a place in the nutraceuticals market for our nutritional lipids with proven health benefits. In addition, the nutraceutical market was rapidly growing at the time and we saw this as a viable business opportunity,” she said. “So far, the marriage of our research and development and the upward nutraceutical trend has proven successful.”

Within the company’s product portfolio is a host of nutraceutical ingredients including Clarinol® concentrated pure and potent conjugated linoleic acid (CLA), Marinol® fish oil omega 3 concentrates, Gammanol® concentrated gamma linolenic acid (GLA), Betapol®, a vegetable fat blend for infant formulas and a fractionated lecithin product. These products are available in several delivery forms, depending on the application for which the ingredient will be used.

All Clarinol products are made from natural safflower and sunflower oils by a gentle, proprietary process. This unique manufacturing method suppresses the inclusion of isomers other than c9,t11 and t10,c12, yielding a pure CLA with the highest available concentration of these two active isomers. A number of studies in animals and humans indicate that CLA supplementation decreases body fat and increases lean muscle mass. In addition to rigorously analyzing current research, Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition is also funding pre-clinical and clinical studies in humans to substantiate Clarinol®’s efficacy even further. Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition is one of only two companies licensed by the CLA patent holder, the Wisconsin Alumni Research Foundation (WARF), to manufacture and market CLA products for dietary supplements.

The company’s all natural Marinol fish oil concentrates are formulated to be rich in docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) and eicosapentaenoic acid (EPA), which enables a reduced capsule size as well as a reduced number of capsules required for a given daily intake, while in the GLA area, the Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition process concentrates the GLA level in evening primrose oil and borage oil to produce its Gammanol ingredient.

Also in the Loders Croklaan portfolio is Betapol, a vegetable fat blend that closely mimics the physical and chemical structure of HMF (human milk fat) found in breast milk. As such it makes a major contribution to the health of babies through increased fat absorption, increased calcium absorption and softer stools and reduced incidence of constipation.

Lastly, the company offers a fractionated lecithin product. Phospha­tidyl choline (PC), a vital health component of lecithin, is a more bioavailable source than free choline itself or its salts. For over one hundred years, according to the company, “PC, in the form of lecithin, has been used in pharmaceutical applications and extensive research programs have highlighted the therapeutic properties of this natural ingredient.”

Mrs. Bolsenbroek speculated on the company’s role and how it will evolve into the future nutraceuticals market. “This is a growing market and when you match that with our research capabilities and the fact that we can substantiate all of our ingredients with efficacy data, we are really poised to take advantage of what this growing market has to offer.” She added, “The market is not just about vitamins and minerals anymore but also nutritional lipids, which will find a more solid position in the nutraceuticals market of the future.”—R.M.

Loders Croklaan Lipid Nutrition
P.O. Box 4
1520 AA Wormerveer
The Netherlands
Telephone: 31-75-6292911; U.S.: 815-730-5200
Fax: 31-75-6292564; U.S.: 815-730-5202
E-mail:lipidnutrition@croklaan.com
Website: www.lipidnutrition.com