Indena's Grape Seed Extracts Receive Kosher Certification

Indena’s Grape Seed Extracts Receive Kosher Certification

2 November 2011

Milan, November 2, 2011 – Indena has received kosher certification from KLBD (also known as the Kashrut Division of the London Beth Din) for its Leucoselect and Enovita grape seed extract ingredients. Headquartered in Milan, Indena has worked extensively with KLBD in London for a number of years and has certified a number of its ingredients. The kosher certification for Indena’s grape seed extracts required extensive site inspections by Rabbi Akiva Padwa, Director of Certification, reviewing the entire process from harvest, through preparation of the seeds to the extraction of the polyphenols.

According to a recent study conducted by Mintel International, consumers are increasingly purchasing kosher-certified products based on food quality, general healthfulness and food safety. Supplements containing grape seed extracts have long been available in the market and functional foods have been introduced in recent years. Grape seed extracts are a rich source of a complex mixture of polyphenols, containing a characteristic signature of catechins, procyanidins and proanthocyanidins. Indena’s grape seed extracts have been shown to provide more antioxidant power than vitamin C and E and proved, among others activities, to be effective in improving antioxidant defences and counteracting the oxidative stress.

Russell Brown, KLBD Commercial Consultant, commented: “KLBD, as the largest kosher agency in Europe, is very pleased to have kosher certified Indena’s grape seed extracts. This is a culmination of several years’ hard work; a team effort between their production people and our rabbinical experts”.

Christian Artaria, Marketing Director & Head of Functional Food Development for Indena said “We were delighted to go through the auditing process because KLBD is recognised by our customers as an international kosher agency. Certification is opening up markets and helping to make business easier”.

Indena has been working on grape seed extract since the early seventies. Along the years our company has strived for quality and today its standardized extracts are considered the reference for the market. Leucoselect and Eovita are well-defined grape seed extracts thoroughly characterized by HPLC-UV, GPC and HPLC-TSP-MS.

Leucoselect is enriched in lower procyanidin oligimers (OPCs), the only bioavailable procyanidins, and is one of the most widely investigated grape seed extracts worldwide, capitalizing on Indena’s 40 years experience in grape seed extract production. Enovita is a food-grade grape seed procyanidin extract less rich in lower procyanidin oligomers compared to Leucoselect, and specifically designed for the food market.
Leucoselect was awarded in May 2011 as “Ingredient of the month” by “Nutrafiles.com” following a series of evaluations including the scientific support, authorizations and market recognition.

Indena is the leading company dedicated to the identification, development and production of active principles derived from plants, for use in the pharmaceutical, health food and cosmetics industries. Backed up by 90 years of botanical experience, the key to Indena’s success is its intense research activity. The company has more than 150 primary patents and has published more than 700 scientific studies. Indena employs more than 800 staff, including 10% dedicated to full-time research activities carried out at Settala Research Center, near Milan. Indena also co-operates with the world’s most prestigious universities and private research institutions. Headquartered in Milan, Indena has 5 production sites and 4 international branches throughout the world and manages sales in more than 70 countries. The Company’s experts communicate and interact constantly with the major international regulatory authorities such as WHO, EMEA, and ESCOP, and cooperate on the update of all the main pharmacopoeias.

KLBD Kosher Certification (also known as the Kashrut Division of the London Beth Din) is one of the world’s leading and oldest kosher certification agencies. Headquartered in London and operating in 50 countries across all continents and certifying many of the multi-national food processors and small raw material manufacturers alike. KLBD is committed to offering a professional and affordable global kosher certification with rabbis, food technologists and food chemists working around the clock for your needs alongside our representatives and agents around the world.