Chicory root fiber from Sensus is first fiber recognized as natural under ISO standards, firm says

Image courtesy of Sensus

Sensus (Roosendaal, The Netherlands), a major chicory root processor, announced that its full range of chicory inulin and oligofructose products qualify as natural under the new ISO 19657:2017 standard. This makes the chicory root fiber the first dietary fiber to achieve natural verification per the ISO standard, says the company. The ingredient also recently received good news from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration when the agency, under its new labeling rules, agreed to include chicory inulin and oligofructose in the agency’s new, official definition of dietary fiber.

“We are extremely pleased that we can now really call our chicory inulin natural according to the very latest and strict ISO standard,” explains Sensus scientific and regulatory affairs leader, Elaine Vaughan, PhD, in a press release. “There are many fibers available in the market and this qualification distinguishes chicory inulin from fibers that you cannot find in nature.”

The ingredient occurring in nature is a main criteria of the ISO standard. Sensus’s inulin fiber is extracted from chicory roots with hot water.

The company added: “To become verified as natural, an ingredient must occur in nature. For this reason, not many other dietary fibers will qualify for this verification, simply because they do not occur in nature.”