The European Federation of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM) and the European Responsible Nutrition Alliance (ERNA) announced that more than 625 dossiers have been compiled including vitamin and mineral claims, macronutrients, other substances, botanicals and probiotics, which they hope will be accepted onto Member State lists.

"We are in the final stage of one of the most substantial activities this industry has ever taken on - the development of the EU industry list of health claims," said Peter van Doorn, EHPM chairman.

"It has been an enormously labour-intensive task due to the complexity of discussions, but the list will be completed well in time for submission to most Member States' lists," he added.

Article 13, on well-established claims, must be submitted by member states by early 2008, after which the final list will be drawn up within two years. But there are no guarantees that proposed claims will make it onto the final list, and if there are any surprises companies may find themselves having to withdraw products immediately.

Claims under Article 13 must be substantiated on the basis of generally accepted scientific evidence, and well understood by the average consumer. However, this topic is surrounded in uncertainty since no guidelines have been issued by the European Food Standards Authority (EFSA) concerning how much or what type of scientific evidence is needed, and how the "average consumer" is defined.

To counter this uncertainty, the associations asked independent experts to develop their own guidelines for the process, taking into account food and food categories, diet and nutrients, health relationships and conditions of use, as well as the nature of the evidence and examples of label and advertising wording.

"We have used a grading of evidence system to help judge the validity of the scientific evidence. Claims that did not meet our standards have been rejected. We hope that our efforts will be rewarded at national and EU level," said Patrick Coppens, secretary general ERNA.

The trade associations have reportedly spent the last 12 months working on the creation of a credible list of scientifically substantiated dossiers for substances for amino acids, proteins and botanicals.

Contributions to the industry list came from EHPM, ERNA, the European Botanical Forum (EBF) and the Confederation of Food and Drink Industries of the EEC (CIAA).