| Green Tea Catechin for Weight Control
Last May, a house cleaning and cosmetic giant, Kao Co., launched a weight control beverage, Healthya Green Tea. Healthya is a green tea drink that contains 540 mg of green tea catechin in a 350 ml single serving bottle. The green tea we drink every day contains “only one fourth’s of the amount of catechin in the same serving” said Mr. Yasukawa, chief of new product development at Kao. Green tea catechin is what makes tea bitter. He explained that a green tea drink 4 times more bitter would be almost impossible for people to tolerate. It therefore took almost 3 years to develop a drink with a reasonably enjoyable taste which still contain a high enough volume of tea catechin to be effective for weight control. Healthya was FOSHU-approved (Foods for Specified Health Use) in March, 2003. Its health claim reads, “this product contains green tea catechin therefore it is suitable for people who are concerned with body fat.”
According to a published report, people who drank one Healthya a day for 12 weeks lost an average 10 percent BMI. Enjoying tea and losing weight appealed to consumers. In just the six months since its introduction, the company has sold $50 million worth of product and sales are now over $100 million. In a land of 126 million people, I consider any food with over $100 million a year in revenues a hit product. In the functional foods category only a handful of products meet that qualification.
this is the first hit on google! | 
08-16-2007, 06:36 PM
