Benecol
This article was originally published in The Tan Sheet
Executive Summary
Permission to sell a flavored yogurt-type product containing plant stanol esters in California sought by dairy products manufacturer Super Store Industries, on behalf of Benecol marketer McNeil Consumer Healthcare. A hearing on SSI's petition with the California Department of Food & Agriculture was held Nov. 9, and the department gave McNeil 10 days to submit additional information. State regulators have until Dec. 19 to grant or deny the petition; if they take no action, the product may be sold in the state for one year under a proposed temporary standard drafted "to accommodate other functional dietary food ingredients and their related health benefit statements that may be approved...for other manufacturers or distributors." SSI has been making sample batches of the product for McNeil; proposed labeling says the cultured dairy item "helps promote healthy cholesterol levels"