A Taste of Wellness for Savoury and Snacks
Givaudan
Nutritional ingredients supplier Cognis Nutrition & Health has responded to claims made earlier this week by Dutch rival Loders Croklaan regarding the infringement of several of its patents.
The allegations concern the Tonalin brand of Conjugated Linoleic Acid (CLA) which is sold in the US by Natural, the North American subsidiary of Norway's Natural group.
Natural created the Tonalin brand, but has been accused by Loders of infringing patents for its Clarinol brand of CLA.
"Tonalin CLA is currently manufactured by Cognis under the terms of a recently implemented licensing agreement between Cognis and Natural," commented the German company in response to the Loders allegations.
"The processes used by Cognis are proprietary developments which have been designed to ensure the integrity and consistent quality of Tonalin CLA. At the same time they clearly do not infringe the Loders Croklaan patents," Cognis added. Natural has not yet commented on the Loders allegations
The licensing agreement between Natural and Cognis for Tonalin CLA only came into effect on 15 February 2003.
Cognis recently resolved a lengthy dispute with ingredients company Kemin over the marketing of its lutein ester product - Kemin claimed that its purified lutein was a better source of the eye-healthy antioxidant and that Cognis was promoting its product as equally effective.