Becel

Plant sterols such as sitosterol and camposterol, as by-products from vegetable oils at prices of about 15 kg-1, are also important starting materials for the production of steroid hormones. A new application is the cholesterol lowering property of these sterols esterified with fatty acids (with a production of about 10000 t a 1). They can be found in the margarine Becel pro-active of Unilever. A Finnish equivalent is Benecol, which contains stands such as sitostanol and campostanol, sterols having the 5,6-double bound hydrogenated, also esterified with fatty adds [33]. 

Phytosterols are industrially isolated from the distillates, resulting from the deodorization of vegetable oils (1, 34—36). Phytosterols are sometimes hydrogenated to produce phytostanols (37). As the solubility of sterols and stanols is very low (< 1% at 25°C), it limits their application in food products. Esterification of sterol and stanols is, therefore, performed to make them fat-soluble and easy to incorporate in food products (37, 38). Two margarines containing 8-9% sterols (Becel Proactiv of Unilever) or stanols (Benecol of Raisio), in the form of esters, are now available in the markets in Europe and the United States. 

There are currently only three players in the sector. Unilever was first on the market in the USA, with its phytosterol margarine sold under the name of Take Control in the USA and as Flora/Becel/Fruit d Or/pro.activ in Europe and... 

Functional spreads did not appear on the German market until September 2000, when Unilever subsidiary Union launched the pro.activ cholesterol-lowering phytosterol half-fat margarine under the becel brand. The brand is estimated to have gained a 6% share of the margarine market. 

The much-heralded arrival of Unilever s Becel pro.activ in these markets in... 

Netherlands, and Ireland. Thus, the longest experience of consumption of plant stanol ester-enriched products is a 6-year period in Finland. Sterol ester-enriched spreads were first launched in 1999 in the USA by Lipton Ltd as Take Control margarine. Today sterol ester-enriched margarines are available worldwide under brand names such as Take Control , Flora ProActive , Becel ProActive , and Rama Proactive from Unilever/Lipton, or Logicol from Goodman Fielder Ltd. Other spreads include vegetable oil-based cream cheeses available in Finnish, UK, and other European markets. 

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