Bioiberica’s DAOgest has been authorized as a novel food ingredient by the European Commission

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Bioiberica (Barcelona, Spain) has announced that its diamine oxidase enzyme ingredient, DAOgest, was granted Novel Food Status by the European Commission. As a result, the ingredient is now commercially available in Europe. DAOgest is designed to help improve the quality of life for people with histamine intolerance.

Daniel Martinez Puig, head of human health R&D at Bioiberica explained to Nutritional Outlook at Vitafoods Europe 2023 that diamine oxidase is responsible to breaking down histamine in the body and that people with low levels of the enzyme are unable to sufficiently break down histamine. As a result, they experience negative symptoms when eating certain foods with a high histamine content, particularly fermented foods. Puig said that these symptoms can include allergy-like symptoms such as sneezing, as well as headache, rashes, bloating, and constipation. The intolerance is estimated to effect 1-3% of the global population.¹

The perniciousness of histamine intolerance is that many foods contain histamine, and therefore histamine free diets are highly restrictive, explained Bioiberica’s strategic marketing manager for healthcare, Maria Vilaro, PhD. Because of this, DAOgest may provide histamine-intolerant people more flexibility. However, because histamine intolerance is not as well known as other intolerance, such as lactose or gluten intolerance, it’s important to raise awareness.

“What we have learned is that we have to explain to the end users not only the product, but also the intolerance,” said Vilaro. This means helping them understand what histamine-containing foods that may be affecting them, and ways to help mitigate their effects, one of which is exogenous diamine oxidase. Of course, while it’s important to educate consumers, Vilaro said that Bioiberica is also making an effort to educate specialists that may be working with histamine-intolerant patients so that they know there are other options out there besides a histamine-free diet.

By entering the European marketplace, DAOgest offers relief to a new population of histamine-intolerant individuals, raising awareness of the condition so that people can improve their quality of life.

Reference

1. Comas-Basté, O.; Sánchez-Pérez, S.; Veciana-Nogués, M.T.; Latorre-Moratalla, M.; Vidal-Carou, M.D.C. Histamin Intolerance: The Current State of the Art. 2020, 10 (8): 1181. DOI: 10.3390/biom10081181.