Mars is entering the UK and Irish supplement market with CocoaVia, a new cocoa extract food supplement.
The company said that the launch is in response to an increasing body of evidence supporting the vascular benefits of cocoa flavanols, which help to maintain the elasticity of blood vessels. A minimum amount of 200mg of cocoa flavanols every day helps to support these benefits and contribute to normal blood flow, the research has shown.
CocoaVia will be available online to consumers in the UK and Ireland from this month, with capsules of the cocoa extract packed in 90-count bottles.
The supplement is not made of chocolate or derived from chocolate in the same way that most Mars products are – rather it is made from from cocoa flavanols extracted directly from fresh cocoa beans.
Each three-capsule portion of the supplement delivers 375mg of cocoa flavanols – way above the level required to achieve effective results.
Since fermentation and roasting are key steps in traditional cocoa processing, most cocoa processing destroys cocoa flavanols. But Mars, Incorporated has dedicated over two decades of research to cocoa flavanols and developed its proprietary Cocoapro process, which preserves the flavanols found naturally in cocoa beans.
Mars Symbioscience marketing and sales director Julie Talbot said: “We are excited to expand our distribution to the UK and Ireland to provide more people with the opportunity to experience the benefits of CocoaVia® food supplement.”
The European distribution follows expanded distribution to over 7,800 Walgreens locations in the US, which occurred in October 2016.
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