Rice Dream Heart Wise is a lactose-free beverage that contains the same amount of calcium as whole milk. It also contains Cargill Health & Food Technologies' CoroWise brand phytosterols, allowing it to carry the FDA-approved heart health claim.

Phytosterols, when part of a diet low in saturated fat and cholesterol, may help reduce the risk of heart disease by lowering cholesterol levels, according to the approved science. The ingredient also helps to enhance Rice Dream's creamy texture and flavor, claims Hain Celestial .

Irwin Simon, chief executive officer of the Melville, New York-based group, said: "Rice Dream Heart Wise drink is an exciting extension to Hain Celestial's Rice Dream line of non-dairy beverages because it launches us into the future of functional beverages."

Cargill's phytosterols have also been added to Coke's new cholesterol-reducing Minute Maid Heart Wise, launched in the US in October. Rival PepsiCo's juice unit Tropicana is also rumored to be working on a heart-healthy orange juice but the product will likely be based on folates and other vitamins.

Hain Celestial recently reported full year sales up by 17.8 per cent over the previous year to $466.5 million and a net income of $27.5 million for fiscal 2003. The company ended its activities in supplements last year to focus on natural and organic foods, buying up the non-dairy beverage maker Imagine Foods in December.

It also markets a range of juices fortified with Kemin's FloraGLO lutein.