Benecol - Healthcare Professionals

Benecol® Food Applications

Benecol products are targeted to individuals who want to lower their serum cholesterol levels through diet. Every Benecol -labelled product contains enough plant stanol esters to lower cholesterol. This effect is demonstrated when the product is consumed daily at normal dietary levels.
Benecol products are also tailored to have a profile that is healthy for the heart, such as low fat content and a nutritionally desirable fatty acid profile. At their best, Benecol products give consumers dietary choices for a healthy heart.

The best-known Benecol products are yogurt drink and margarine.

Although chemically stanol ester is a fat, it can also be added to many low-fat foods. Benecol food applications vary from high-fat margarines to dairy and cereal foods where the stanol ester is the product's only fat source.

Please click here for a list of the countries and the products available.

Clinical tests were conducted for each new type of Benecol products to ensure that the cholesterol-lowering effect of stanol ester is not lost when the product platform is changed.

Adding Stanol Esters to Different Kinds of Food

All foods containing edible oils and fats are potential candidates for stanol ester enrichment, as do products which naturally contain stabilisers or emulsifiers or where these are added to attain specific properties. Stanol esters can also be used in low-fat foods.

Stanol esters should be added to the end product formulation in the same way as the fat which they replace. Basically, the same processing equipment can be used for manufacturing a stanol ester-enriched product which is used for the basic product. The higher viscosity of stanol esters (compared with normally used oils and fats) must be taken into account when adding stanol esters into a food matrix. Effective mixing may be required to achieve a homogeneous mixture or emulsion.

Stanol esters with different fatty acid profiles can be selected for different food types. The type of stanol ester is chosen according to its texturising properties to provide properties which correspond to those of the saturated fat which is being replaced.

Stanol Esters in Spreads

Replacing traditional saturated and trans-unsaturated hard fat with stanol esters results in a 45% reduction in the saturated fatty acid content of the spread, but only a 5% resp. 10% reduction in monounsaturated and polyunsaturated fatty acids. The structurising effect of stanol esters can be used particularly for low-fat spreads to even fully replace hard fat containing nutritionally undesirable saturated and trans-saturated fatty acids, as in the fat blends of spreads (2).

The energy content of stanol ester-enriched spreads is typically lower than that of the corresponding conventional spreads. This is because the stanol part, which represents 60% of the stanol ester molecule, cannot be absorbed and hence not a source of energy in the product.

One of the nutritional benefits of Benecol spreads is that the content of unsaturated fatty acids can be increased in significant amounts in the product. The cholesterol-lowering effect of Benecol spreads is an additional effect of the stanol esters and unsaturated fatty acids in the product.

Stanol Esters in Low-Fat Foods

Dairy and Non-Dairy Foods

Of the cholesterol-lowering foods, dairy foods are gaining in popularity. Although yoghurt remains a common product, yoghurt drinks have been the most popular version of new dairy Benecol products in recent years.

Plant stanol esters give dairy products a creamy texture with a very low fat content. Furthermore, because the fatty acids of stanol esters are derived from vegetable oils, the product's fatty acid profile is high in unsaturated and very low in saturated fatty acids.

Different soy- and cereal-based non-dairy alternatives are also potential platforms for Benecol products. Especially in the USA, Asia and Central Europe, soy- and cereal-based non-dairy foods are gaining in popularity as dietary choices for good heart health. Plant stanol esters can be added to these foods using a technology similar to that used in the dairy industry. Stanol esters have an additional benefit in soy and cereal food applications because they can mask some of the off flavour these foods may have.

Furthermore, stanol esters can also mask bitterness. When added to soy products, less sugar or other sweetener is required to obtain a more pleasant taste and feeling to the mouth.

Cereal Foods and Pasta

Cereal foods, especially those rich in soluble fibre, are widely acknowledged as part of a healthy heart diet. Different types of cereal foods are therefore another potential Benecol application. The first cereal-based Benecol product was dry pasta, first marketed in Finland at the beginning of 2003. Stanol ester can also be added to breakfast cereals, such as muesli. As in spreads and margarines, stanol esters replace part or all of the hard fat in granulated muesli products, thus lowering the saturated fatty acids content.

Beverages and Other Low-Fat Applications

Beverages are a convenient way for consumers to obtain effective quantities of stanol esters with the diet. Although stanol esters typically have been associated with fatty foods, they can easily be incorporated into beverages and other low-fat or fat-free foods.

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