The Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato, developed by Sanatech Seed Co.,Ltd., was accepted by the Consumer Affairs Agency (CAA) as a food with functional claim on 30 November 2022 (Notification: H617).
The notifier is our affiliated company, Pioneer Ecoscience Co., Ltd..
The system of Foods with Function Claims (FFC) was launched in April 2015 in order to help Japanese consumers make more informed choices. One of the features of this system is that if the required information of a food product is notified to the Secretary-General of the CAA, the product is allowed to be marketed with function claims stating the productʼs specified health effect, under the food business operator’s own responsibility. Consumers can check the information on the CAA website under ‘FFC Notification Search’ (available in Japanese only).
https://www.fld.caa.go.jp/caaks/cssc01/
The Sicilian Rouge High GABA tomato has been shown to contain amounts of GABA necessary for the following four effects:
- 1 tomato can lower blood pressure of people with high blood pressure
- 2 tomatoes can relieve temporary stress from work/studies.
- 5 to 7 tomatoes can improve sleep quality (for example, a deeper and more refreshing sleep)
- 5 to 7 tomatoes can protect skin health by maintaining skin elasticity
This is the first time that the four functions of GABA have been combined in a fresh food product in Japan.
The tomato will be available for purchase as a functional food from the company’s own online shop as soon as new packaging bearing functional claims is printed..
The Sicilian Rouge tomato was successfully enhanced by gene editing technology to contain GABA equivalent to 12 regular commercial cherry tomatoes (according to our research). Therefore, eating only a small amount is enough to easily ingest GABA daily.. Consumers can take care of their health in a tasty and easy way just by adding this tomato to a lunchbox or evening meal.
