EFSA Awards Novel Food Ingredient Status to Brain Supplement

NEW YORK—Kyowa Hakko’s Citicoline, which increases levels of several important neurotransmitters, received novel food ingredient status from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)’s Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies panel.

Citicoline is a generic name for choline cytidine 5’-pysrophospate (CDP-choline), an organic molecule produced endogenously and found in all living cells. It is a source of choline and precursor for the synthesis of phospholipids that are essential constituents of cell membranes, such as phosphatidylcholine, phosphatidylserine and phosphatidyl-ethanolamine.

Cognizin Citicoline is often called a “brain nutrient" because it increases levels of several important neurotransmitters, including acetylcholine, dopamine and noradrenaline; it helps maintain the integrity of neuronal cell membranes; and it increases energy production in the frontal cortex.

It is intended to be used in food supplements in Europe aimed at the adult population at a maximum level of 500 mg/day, and in foods for particular nutritional uses, specifically foods for special medical purposes, at a maximum level of 250 mg/serving, and with a maximum daily intake from these types of foods of 1,000 mg/day.

In the United States, Cognizin’s brand name Kyowa Hakko USA, Inc. has been marketing Citicoline since the early 1980’s as a dietary supplement, and it received self-affirmed generally recognized as safe (GRAS) status in 2009 as a food ingredient for use at levels of 250 mg per serving in such products as dietary supplements, beverages, breakfast cereals, chewing gum, pastas, hard candies, milk products, fruit juices and soft candy.