Maximal daily doses for some vitamins or minerals for food supplements have been changed in December 2012 by Italian Authorities:

- Vitamin D: 25 μg (instead of 10 μg)
- Vitamin B6: 9,5 mg (instead of 6 mg)
- Iron: 30 mg (instead of 21 mg).

The Italian decree on the use of plants and plant preparations in food supplements, published in July 2012, has been updated in January 2013 concerning a hundred entries of the positive list of 1200 authorized plants:

- Some conditions of use have been modified (parts of plants or warnings, for example: for Salix alba, the labelling of salicin by daily dose is now mandatory).
- Some plants have been added (for example: Abarema cochliocarpos, Auricularia polytricha, Cinnamomum cassia, Cornus mas, Gentiana acaulis, Prunus mume).

The legislative statuses of nutrients or plants concerned by these changes have been updated in our database NUTRAVERIS’ON LINE.

This double-blind, randomized placebo-controlled trial has compared the effect of a flavanol-rich chocolate to a control chocolate on endothelial and platelet function in 20 patients with heart failure. The effect of chocolate was assessed in the short-term (2h after ingestion) and long term (4 weeks). Flow-mediated vasodilatation has been increased in the flavanol-rich chocolate group in both short and long term. Conversely, endothelial-independent vasodilatation has not been affected by the supplementations. Platelet adhesion has been reduced 2h after flavanol-rich chocolate, but this effect was not observed after 4 weeks. Consequently, these results highlight cardiovascular beneficial effects of flavanol-rich chocolate.

Eur Heart J. 2012 Sep;33(17):2172-80
Cardiovascular effects of flavanol-rich chocolate in patients with heart failure.
Flammer AJ, Sudano I, Wolfrum M, Thomas R, Enseleit F, Périat D, Kaiser P, Hirt A, Hermann M, Serafini M, Lévêques A, Lüscher TF, Ruschitzka F, Noll G, Corti R