Lycotec will present beauty chocolate Esthechoc at the Global Food Innovation Summit in London, UK, next month.
The product is based on 70% cocoa dark chocolate and contains antioxidants with pleotropic anti-ageing properties – cocoa flavanols and marine carotenoid astaxanthin.
The blend of proprietary technologies behind the laboratory and clinical development of this product empowers these bioactive molecules to such a level that one 7.5g piece of Esthechoc delivers flavanol activity equivalent to 100g of dark chocolate, and astaxanthin to the level of 300g of wild Alaskan salmon.
Demonstrated in extensive clinical trials, after three to four weeks of daily intake by 50-60 year old volunteers, the beauty chocolate was able to not only suppress markers of sub-clinical inflammatory damage in their blood, but also reverse their age-related depression of microcirculation and blood supply to such peripheral tissues as subcutaneous fat and skin.
This consequently resulted in a significant boost of oxygen delivery to these tissues and restoration of their respiration – the essential physiological need in controlling and supporting skin health.
According to clinical studies, ingestion of a piece of Esthechoc does not result in postprandial lipid- or hyperglycaemia, hence it does not contribute to calorie concerns and should be safe for people with diabetes.
The technology behind the product was developed by the Cambridge-based company Lycotec.
The chocolate is to be commercialized by Cambridge Chocolate Technologies.
Dr Ivan Petyaev, the inventor of the technologies and the director of Lycotec, stated that it took a number of years to convert the research, which originated from Cambridge University, to develop the functional chocolate portfolio.
Last year the company entered into a licensing deal with an investment company, Adiuvo S.A., a partnership that has enabled Lycotec products to now come to commercialization.
