KANANASKIS, Alta. – A Lacombe, Alta., dairy will be the face for a CLA application for novel food status with Health Canada.
Hennie Bos and Tinie Eilers of Bles-Wold Dairy believe so strongly in the health benefits found in their yogurt, which is rich in conjugated linoleic acid, that they are willing to put their name forward for the long bureaucratic process of being granted novel food status.
“We see a great potential and health benefits to our consumers,” said Bos during a meeting of CLA researchers and scientists.
Read Also
Agriculture ministers agree to AgriStability changes
federal government proposed several months ago to increase the compensation rate from 80 to 90 per cent and double the maximum payment from $3 million to $6 million
Conjugated linoleic acid is an essential fatty acid found in the meat and milk of ruminant animals. Initial research has shown foods containing CLA may provide benefits from weight loss to guarding against cancer.
While early research has shown CLA’s promise, it’s a long journey before Health Canada will grant beef and dairy producers the right to use a CLA health claim on their label.
“The research that’s required and the time that it takes and the cost, it will be years before we can get a health claim,” said Jyoti Sahasrabudhe, hired by the CLA Network to shepherd the application through Health Canada.
Sahasrabudhe will help Bles-Wold weave through the food and drug regulations governing what can and can’t be said about CLA on their yogurt label.
The first step is to have Bles-Wold yogurt on the shelf with a label that declares normal levels of CLA and no health claims or benefits.
The next step is to enhance the levels of CLA and obtain novel food approval for products with higher levels of CLA. Novel food is a food that lacks a significant history of consumption.
Research has shown that CLA levels can be increased seven-fold in beef and 10-fold in milk by adjusting the feed for the livestock. Consumers can then eat a substantial portion of CLA by substituting regular beef and dairy products with those having enhanced CLA levels.
Getting enhanced levels of CLA in dairy cattle is as simple as feeding whole sunflower seeds in the dairy ration or finishing beef cattle on pasture.
Bles-Wold dairy already increases the CLA in its milk used to make yogurt by feeding whole sunflower seeds in its dairy ration.
“They love it. It’s easy to feed, you don’t have to process it,” said Bos, who sees a strong market for CLA-enhanced yogurt especially with their customers who are already buying the high quality, natural yogurt.
“We anticipate the awareness of CLA will increase. We anticipate through the education and advertising people will recognize this product as a premium product with health benefits,” he said.
“Our consumers that eat our product are label readers.”
Sahasrabudhe is counselling the CLA Network to forego the years of paperwork needed to get a CLA health claim, and concentrate on good scientific research that shows the benefits of CLA.
Then it needs a good advertising campaign that allows the consumer to connect CLA foods to CLA benefits without Health Canada’s stamp of approval.
