Food Businesses Can Benefit From Approved Health Claims
Tuesday, 25 May 2010
Some 40 nutrition and health claims have now been approved for use in the EU, a seminar on Health Claims on Foods and Food Supplements hosted by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) heard today. This offers a significant market opportunity for food businesses in Ireland, who can use these approved health claims on their food and food supplement products. All approved claims have undergone a rigorous scientific assessment by the European Food Safety Authority, to safeguard consumers against being misled by exaggerated or false nutrition and health claims. At the event, the FSAI also launched a new guidance document, to assist small food businesses who do not have access to experts in nutrition and food law, on the use of these claims.
Addressing over 150 industry and food experts involved in implementing the nutrition and health claims regulations, Prof Alan Reilly, Chief Executive, FSAI stated that once a claim is authorised, it can be used on products that can be distributed in all 27 countries that make up the EU – offering significant prospects for Irish food businesses and access to a pool of some 50 million consumers.
“The ultimate objective of this regulation is to protect consumers from being misled by false health claims on food and food supplements, and to ensure that any approved claims are scientifically proven and reliable. Claims that exaggerate a food’s expected health benefit or are not adequately substantiated will no longer be permitted. To date, some 38 claims have been rejected and products are not permitted to continue bearing these specific claims. Examples of such rejected claims include a chocolate include a chocolate that helps you to grow and a black tea that helps focus attention,” Prof Reilly said.
However, the seminar also heard that it will be some time before all false claims are removed from the market. This is due to the unprecedented number of general health claims that were submitted by the industry across the EU for assessment. General claims are all claims, excluding claims that relate to disease risk reduction or children’s health and development.
Dr Mary Flynn, Chief Specialist in Public Health Nutrition, FSAI stated that the number of general claims that the European Food Safety Authority has to assess was unforeseen.
“From a nutrition perspective, we expected around 200 general health claims – instead, 44,215 were submitted for assessment to EFSA. This has delayed the whole process of finalising a complete list of permitted claims. However, we are using this interim period to assist food businesses to use the 40 approved claims correctly. The labelling rules for the correct use of these claims can be complicated for food businesses, but are essential to ensure that consumers are not misled about expected benefits. This is a real opportunity for food businesses to use these approved claims to their competitive advantage”, stated Dr Flynn.
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Note to editors:
The introduction of Regulation 1924/2006 aims to harmonise and control nutrition and health claims made on foods and food supplements across the EU. Food businesses were advised to submit their health claim and evidence on food and food supplements in 2007. In early 2008, the FSAI compiled a list of some 320 Irish national claims accompanied by scientific evidence of effectiveness and submitted these to the European Commission. The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is the authorised body and is evaluating some 44,000 EU claims, with the ultimate objective of producing a list of approved claims that it has validated for use.
Information on Nutrition and Health Claims and Food Supplements
Information on Nutrition and Health Claims
Guidance Note No. 21 - Food Supplements Regulations and Notifications (Revision 1)