A major Swiss chocolate maker hopes to give cardiovascular patients a good excuse to reach for a chocolate bar and has asked Europe’s highest food safety authority to approve a health claim linking cocoa flavonoids with improved blood flow. In an interview with online trade publication NutraIngredients.com, a company spokesperson for premium chocolate supplier Barry Callebaut said the company is confident that the European Food Safety Authority will approve the claim based on the results of five clinical studies conducted and finalised last year.

Flavonoids are plant-based antioxidants found in brightly coloured foods like blueberries, strawberries, cranberries, red beans, nuts, red wine and tea.

They’ve been associated with a decreased risk of heart, age-related and chronic diseases. Healthy blood flow has become an emerging trend in functional foods recently, with many food manufacturers developing products that claim to help clean the arteries and reduce LDL or bad cholesterol levels.

One of the pioneering artery cleaning products in the market, Fruitflow, is a tomato-based extract that was the first to win EU approval for its nutritional health claims. Meanwhile, other chocolate makers have also clued into the strategy of delivering powerful health benefits via the sweet confectionery.

At the upcoming Winter Fancy Food Show in San Francisco, US-based company ResVez will showcase products it claims can boost the immune system and serve as anti-aging chocolate bars.
 
The TravelTime granola bar, for instance, is made with a beta-glucan extract derived from baker’s yeast that trains the body to strengthen the immune system, while the bar contains enough resveratrol  to equal 50 glasses of red wine.