A beer that reduces cholesterol — sounds almost like an April Fool’s Day joke. But the folks behind the food products company Oatly have developed just such a product, and hope that it will be available in stores within two years.

According to Rapidus, Oatly is also working on prepackaged pancake batter and food fiber concentrate. Oatly’s parent company is Cereal Base Ceba AB, and one of its subsidiaries is Aventure, a company dedicated to food research. Now Aventure is sprouting three new companies that will launch three new products:

• BetterBatter — A prepackaged pancake batter that is already part of Oatly’s range; the company is developing it further.
• FiBeer — a beer that lowers cholesterol.
• GlucaNova — A food fiber concentrate based on oats. This product has not been as fully developed as the beer and pancake batter, which are reported to be just about ready for launch.

The boards of the new companies boast two heavyweights in the Swedish functional foods business: Professor Rickard Öste, one of the people behind Oatly, and Rolf Bjerndell, former president of Skånemejerier who was profoundly involved in the successful launch of Proviva.

Rapidus, aug, 2008