Standardization of plant sterols and stanols as effective components in health foods

The recently legistlated law on the administration of health foods has indicated that there are two tracks for the application in the approval of health foods. Accordingly, a food product which fulfills the announced standard of specification as health foods, officially issued by the administrative agency of the government, may be approved for registration as a health food. The aims of this study is to collect and evaluate the strength of the current scientific evidence (predominantly clinical evisdence based on data quality, consistency, and relevance) of plant sterols and stanols as cholesterol- and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C)-lowering health foods. The following work will be accomplished in one year. Extensive collection and evaluation of the clinical evidence on the phytosterol- and phtostanol-containing health foods. It will be mostly emphasized on the clinical evidence indicating the effective substances versus claimed efficacy (lowering TC and LDL-C). Safety, indication for application, and development and validation of feasible analytical method for determination and standardization of plant sterols and stanols as effective components for health claim will also be included for evaluation. After the evaluation of scientific evidence and criticism by an expert panel, a draft of statement on the standardization of plant sterols and stanols will be proposed.

Project ID:PG9802-0220
External Project ID:DOH098-TD-F-113-098015