A kiwi health drink with some unique ingredients has been making a splash. But after it promised too much in its marketing it's been slapped down by food authorities.

Ārepa has been dealt a blow by food authorities for unsubstantiated health claims, but the company says it's fallen afoul of an outdated food code.

Ārepa's website is impressive.

It shows the three key ingredients in its drinks and powders: Neuroberry (trademarked) blackcurrant, pine bark extract or Enzogenol (trademarked), and L-theanine, a rare amino acid from green tea.

Scroll down and you see the list of research partners: universities in New Zealand, Australia and the United States, the Dementia Centre for Research Collaboration in Australia, and government agencies Callaghan Innovation and Plant and Food Research.

There are more than 30 clinical research projects and trials on the individual ingredients or the actual Ārepa products.

But at the bottom of the homepage is a note that the company behind the drink, Alphagen, has received a notice from government agency New Zealand Food Safety about the health claims over its Ārepa products and the labelling on them. It's the first time NZFS has had to use this provision of the Food Act 2014.

It says some of the claims made are in breach of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code.

The note goes on to say that health claims attributed to Enzogenol (pine bark extract) and L-theanine have not been substantiated, and claims that can be attributed to the drink's vitamin C content do not identify that vitamin C is responsible for that benefit.

Ārepa founder, Angus Brown, said he came up with the idea of developing a healthy drink that could improve brain function after losing grandparents to brain related illnesses.

The company says it is working with New Zealand Food Safety to remove or correct the health claims on the Ārepa product labels and advertising material.

New Zealand Food Safety told The Detail it has been working with Alphagen for years on the product, "including how best to design scientific trials to test and prove its claims".

The deputy director general Vincent Arbuckle says the Food Act allows for innovation in food production so long as it can be backed with good science-based evidence. In most instances, NZFS can work with a company to ensure the information it is giving its customers can be substantiated, he says.

"Despite these efforts there has been a growing gap between the health claims made by Ārepa and the scientific evidence that substantiates these claims," says Arbuckle.

In the same week that the directive came from NZ Food Safety, scientists involved in trials also raised their concerns about the claims…

Go to this episode on rnz.co.nz for more details