Scientific Opinion on the substantiation of health claims related to sialic
acid and learning and memory (ID 1594) pursuant to Article 13(1) of
Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006[sup]1[/sup]
EFSA Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA)2
European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), Parma, Italy
1. Charakterystyka żywności / składnika
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Wpływ na pamięć i zdolność uczenia się
The food constituent that is the subject of the health claim is “Lacprodan CGMP-10 (active ingredient: sialic acid)”. Sialic acid can be measured by established methods.
The Panel considers that the food constituent, sialic acid, which is the subject of the health claim, is sufficiently characterised.
2. Znaczenie oświadczenia dla zdrowia człowieka
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Wpływ na pamięć i zdolność uczenia się
The claimed effect is “plays a role in development of the brain”. The Panel assumes that the target population is the general population.
“Plays a role in development of the brain” is not sufficiently defined. In the context of the proposed wording, the Panel notes that the claimed effect relates to learning and memory. Learning and memory are well-defined constructs which can be measured by established methods.
The Panel considers that normal learning and memory are beneficial to human health.
3. Naukowe uzasadnienia wpływu na zdrowie człowieka - Wpływ na pamięć i zdolność uczenia się
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Wpływ na pamięć i zdolność uczenia się
Twenty one references were cited to substantiate the claimed effect. Twelve of these references reviewed supplementation with tryptophan, not sialic acid.
Of the remaining nine references, one reviewed the molecular structure of different forms of sialic acid in human breast milk (Nakano et al., 2001), one reviewed structural and metabolic aspects of oligosaccharides in human milk (Kunz et al., 2000), and one compared the chemical composition with
respect to sialic acid of human breast milk and infant formulas (Wang et al., 2001). A further three references investigated the structural role of sialic acid in neural or retinal tissue in animals. One of these studies investigated the response of ST8SiaIV, a critical gene for the formation of neural cell adhesion molecule, to sialic acid supplementation in piglets (Wang et al., 2006); a second study was concerned with the impact of dietary ganglioside and long-chain fatty acids on the phospholipid profile of the neonatal rat retina (Park et al., 2005a) and the third study assessed the content of gangliosides in gastrointestinal tract, plasma and brain of rats after supplementation with ganglioside- enriched lipids (Park et al., 2005b). Another animal study investigated learning behaviour in 53 3- days-old piglets after sialic acid supplementation of milk formula for 3 weeks (Wang et al., 2007). Learning performance was assessed in a maze task. Results showed that the supplemented groups (intakes of 40, 85, 180, and 240mg/kg b.w. per day, respectively; the highest dose being comparable with the amounts present in sow milk and human milk) learned navigation through the maze in significantly fewer trials in a dose dependent manner than the control group.
Of the two remaining references, one was a review (Wang and Brand-Miller, 2003) which addressed the link between previous breastfeeding and IQ in children. The review indicated that this link could be explained by sialic acid content in breast milk, but equally a number of other components of breast milk or breast milk feeding could explain that link. The other was a post-mortem study (Wang et al., 2003), assessing differences in sialic acid concentration in the frontal cortex of breast-fed and formula-fed infants who had died from sudden infant death syndrome.
Among all the provided references only one animal study (Wang et al., 2007) in milk formulae fed piglets addressed relevant endpoints. The Panel notes that this animal study does not predict the effect of dietary intake of sialic acid on learning and memory in humans and therefore considers that no scientific conclusion can be drawn in relation to the claimed effect.
The Panel concludes that a cause and effect relationship has not been established between the dietary intake of sialic acid and normal learning and memory.
