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Health claims convention ponders uncertain future

07-Oct-2009

Related topics: Regulation

About 80 representatives from some of the biggest functional foods and ingredients companies in Europe attended a health claims seminar in Brussels yesterday, with the need for better trial design high on the agenda.

One of the speakers, Nigel Baldwin, the senior scientific and regulatory consultant and EU manager at claims consultancy, Cantox Health Sciences, said there was much discussion about trial design, now that it was more clear exactly what EFSA requires

“It is hard not to look to pharma models,” he said, while acknowledging the advantage this gave to big companies that could afford the expense of compiling such data.

When asked if article 13.1 was worth having, Jean Sevigny, veteran food lawyer and senior partner at Brussels-based Keller and Heckman, replied, “no”.

He raised the possibility of the regulation, or aspects of it, being challenged in the courts.