The European Food Safety Authority's backing for a functional health claim for resistant starch should be good news for bread, biscuit and cereal manufacturers wanting to tap into the functional foods market.

In the fourth batch of article 13 general function health claims, EFSA issued a positive opinion for a claim that resistant starch (RS) can reduce post-prandial glycaemic and insulinaemic responses when replacing digestible starches in high carbohydrate baked goods by at least 14 per cent.

However, the Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) did not approve the additonal claims for RS in relation to 'digestive health benefits' and 'favours a normal colon metabolism' as it said these did not refer to "any specific health claim as required by Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006."

The NDA said most of the studies provided for the healthy blood glucose/sugar levels health claim for RS reported a significant decrease in post prandial glycaemic responses, without significantly increasing insulinaemic responses, following intake of RS type 2 "as a partial replacement of digestible starch in baked goods."

While RS type 2 from high amylose maize was subject of the claim, the NDA found that the effect of replacing digestible starch in foods with RS on post prandial glycaemic responses could be expected from all RS types, and that "this effect is not specific to RS2 from high amylose maize."

The panel thus concluded that causality had been established between the consumption of resistant starch from all sources, when replacing digestible starch in baked foods, and a reduction of post prandial glycaemic responses.