健康生活:巧克力是健康食品?

Europe has moved a step closer to putting a health halo on dark chocolate.

歐洲朝着給黑巧克力加上一層健康食品的光環這一現實又邁進了一步。

On Tuesday, the world's largest chocolate manufacturer, Barry Callebaut AG, won the backing of the European Food Safety Authority for its claim that cocoa flavanols, or compounds that can also be found in dark chocolate, can be good for blood circulation.

前不久，全球最大巧克力生產商百樂嘉利寶(Barry Callebaut AG)提出的可可黃烷醇（此類化合物也存在於黑巧克力中）可能有利於血液循環的聲明獲得了歐洲食品安全局(European Food Safety Authority)的認可。

While the request to use the health claim still awaits approval from the European Commission, the food agency's blessing indicates that confection makers including Nestle SA and Kraft Foods Inc., which markets the Cadbury brand overseas, may soon be able to make a health claim on product labels.

儘管使用這項健康聲明的申請仍需等待歐盟委員會(European Commission)的批准，但是歐洲食品安全局的認可表明，包括雀巢(Nestle SA)和卡夫食品(Kraft Foods Inc.)在內的糖果生產商或許很快就能在產品標識上使用該健康聲明。卡夫食品還在海外銷售吉百利(Cadbury)品牌產品。最終的決定預計將於明年年初做出。

A final decision is expected at the beginning of next year.

百樂嘉利寶是全球最大的可可買家之一，該公司稱這項健康聲明可以被用於雀巢和卡夫等客戶的包裝上。該公司還預計，該聲明在巧克力飲料、穀物棒和曲奇等產品中的應用將能帶來巨大的市場潛力。百樂嘉利寶添加了高黃烷醇含量可可產品的客戶將能把這項聲明用在產品和包裝上。

Barry Callebaut, one of the world's largest buyers of cocoa, says the health claim could be applied by its customers to the packages for customers including Nestle and Kraft. The company predicts considerable market potential for applications in items like chocolate drinks, cereal bars and cookies. Barry Callebaut's customers using high-flavanol cocoa products would be able to apply the claim on their products and packaging.

爲了給其申請提供依據，這家瑞士企業還在去年提交了相關證據。該證據顯示，每天攝入200毫克可可黃烷醇有助於正常的血液流動。這個份量比較少，因爲10克（只有0.35盎司）高黃烷醇含量的黑巧克力就含有200毫克黃烷醇。

To back up its request, the Swiss company last year submitted evidence that the intake of 200 milligrams of cocoa flavanols a day contributes to normal blood flow. That's a small portion, as 200 milligrams of cocoa flavanols would be found in 10 grams-a mere 0.35 oz.-of high-flavanol dark chocolate.

黃烷醇已被證明能夠降低血壓、改善血液流動並降低心臟病風險，這至少在部分程度上是因爲它可以促進可使血管舒張的一氧化氮的生成。然而，不可忽略的是，巧克力棒也含有糖分和脂肪。

Flavanols have been shown to lower blood pressure, improve blood flow and reduce heart-disease risk at least in part by stimulating production of nitric oxide, which relaxes vessels. Chocolate bars also include sugar and fat, however.

自2005年以來，百樂嘉利寶開展了20多項臨牀研究來調查可可黃烷醇對人體的影響。該公司使用的可可粉和巧克力產品通過其開發的一種特殊工藝生產，可保留高達80%的黃烷醇含量，而傳統的巧克力生產流程會破壞掉大部分黃烷醇。

Barry Callebaut carried out more than 20 clinical studies looking at effects of cocoa flavanols on people since 2005, using cocoa powder and chocolate products made through a special process it developed that preserves up to 80% of flavanols, which would be mostly destroyed in conventional chocolate-making procedures.

在歐洲食品安全局的支持之下，百樂嘉利寶是歐盟27個成員國中第一家獲得有關可可黃烷醇積極效果的官方認證的企業。如果它還能獲得歐盟委員會的批准，那麼它將被授予在歐盟區內使用可可黃烷醇健康聲明五年時間的權利。

With the backing of the European food authority, Barry Callebaut is the first company in the 27-member bloc to obtain an official validation of the positive effects of cocoa flavanols. If it gets approval from the EU Commission, the chocolate maker would be granted the right to use the cocoa flavanols claim for five years within EU countries.

在海外但不在美國本土銷售吉百利產品的卡夫公司表示，“只要這些健康聲明真實無誤、沒有誤導性並且得到了有資質的科研人員的適當證明，我們支持在所有產品類別上使用它們。”

Kraft, which sells Cadbury overseas and not in the U.S., said, 'We support the use of health claims on all product categories as long as these are truthful, not misleading, and appropriately supported by qualified scientists.'

好時公司(Hershey Co.)則誇耀稱，其好時可可粉和好時特濃黑巧克力是黃烷醇抗氧化劑的天然來源。

Hershey Co. has touted that its namesake Cocoa and Special Dark versions of chocolates are natural sources of flavanol antioxidants.

對於食品公司而言，附帶健康聲明的食品正成爲一個越來越重要的利基市場。在歐洲經濟增長乏力的情況下，品牌食品被價格更便宜的產品搶去了一些市場份額，因此這些公司希望藉助銷售價格更高的這類產品來抵消銷售的萎縮。根據歐睿信息諮詢公司(Euromonitor International)的預測，到2015年，全球健康食品及飲料市場的市場總值有望從2010年的6010億美元升至6910億美元。