As I previously discussed in NutraIngredients, the EU’s term 2024-2029 brings challenges and opportunities for the sports and active nutrition sector. The European Commission has announced ambitious plans to boost sustainability, innovation and competitiveness in the food industry, which could be hindered by the growth of national populism in the European Parliament.
But the first and biggest challenge for our sector is to help the decision makers who recently arrived in Brussels gain a better understanding of sports foods and ensure fit-for-purpose regulations, so we can continue helping consumers lead healthy and active lifestyles. In a three-pillar manifesto published last week, ESSNA outlines nine priorities for the new EU policy-makers to achieve this. Here’s everything sports foods businesses need to know.
Food labelling and composition, health claims and novel foods
Raising awareness of sports foods among decision makers remains key priority for the sports and active nutrition sector. In particular, policy makers need to develop a better understanding of the role of the specific composition of sports foods. That is, these products may contain higher amounts of nutrients such as carbohydrates, sugar and sodium to cater for the dietary requirements of active consumers.
Over the last few years, we’ve seen policy initiatives focused on streamlining food information to consumers and improving their diets that haven’t taken into account the specific formulation of sports foods and the fact that these products are marketed to sportspeople.
For instance, we saw this in the European Commission’s plan to introduce mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labeling and nutrient profiles, announced back in 2021. Rather than promoting healthier diets, with this initiative the Commission essentially suggested blanket applications across all food sectors that would have unfairly penalized the sports foods industry and would have confused consumers. With the proposed legislation, many sports and active nutrition products would be wrongly labelled as unhealthy. ESSNA’s manifesto stresses the need to ensure that any changes in food labeling will fully consider the specificities of sports foods and their role in supporting active consumers’ dietary needs.
Our manifesto also emphasizes the importance of having a regulatory framework of sports and active nutrition products that facilitates and does not prevent the communication of their health benefits to consumers. The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, the main framework for communicating the intended and responsible use of sports nutrition products to consumers, has posed important barriers to businesses that aim to do this.
Over the years, as a result of the NHCR’s strict rules, we’ve seen several cases where valid claims (such as proposed health claims on sodium and glucose—both important ingredients for the sports nutrition sector) were rejected in the EU. This highlights the need for a more tailored regulatory framework that ensures a proportionate, consistent and evidence-based assessment and authorization of health claims, taking due account of the specific needs of sportspeople.
With research and innovation driving the sports nutrition industry’s growth and development, the need for appropriate legislation on novel foods is also key priority for businesses. While rigorous, the EU legislation governing novel foods is very complex and the authorization process, lengthy. This costs businesses significant time and money. ESSNA’s manifesto calls on decision-makers to make sure that sports foods companies are provided with proper guidance to foster innovation in sports nutrition while ensuring consumer safety.
Sustainability
The sports and active nutrition sector has been at the forefront of the food industry’s sustainability transition. For instance, ESSNA’s Sustainability Pledge aims to accelerate the industry’s efforts when it comes to environmental protection and contribute to governmental initiatives and regulations in Europe aiming to make the food system more sustainable. The industry works to support the implementation of legislations like the Packaging and Packaging Waste Regulation, the EU Single-use Plastics Directive and the Directive to Empower Consumers for the Green Transition.
However, an important challenge for our sector is the current fragmentation in the Single Market, for instance in relation to different infrastructures for recycling in Member States. As explained in ESSNA’s manifesto, decision-makers need to ensure the appropriate and harmonized implementation of these laws before considering new initiatives and their impact. Also, with ongoing technological developments aiming to boost circularity, policy-makers need to foster innovation and support manufacturers in investing in safe and effective packaging mix based on economic and environmental criteria.
Compliance and consumer safety
Our manifesto also focuses on addressing non-compliance, which is an ongoing challenge for the sports and active nutrition industry. For the past 10 years, in conjunction with industry stakeholders and enforcement authorities, ESSNA has been running an award-winning campaign aiming to address this issue.
Unfortunately, the sector continues to be plagued by a handful of companies giving false information about their products, which are inaccurately presented as sports nutrition and/or selling products containing illegal substances. This is because voluntary industry initiatives alone are not enough.
Regulations such as the Official Controls Regulation, the Novel Food Regulation and the Digital Services Act for online platforms provide a helpful framework to protect consumers and ensure that instances of non-compliance are tackled at the source. Yet, more enforcement that is harmonized across Europe is needed to protect the reputation of the industry, ensure consumer safety as well as competition in the market.
Inadvertent doping is also an important challenge for the sector. The industry has voluntarily made significant progress in tackling this problem. For instance, many businesses, including ESSNA members, have adopted testing and certification programs such as Informed Sport, NSF International and Cologne List. Also, ESSNA has developed and made publicly available its Framework on Tackling Inadvertent Doping. This explains how products can become contaminated and provides guidance and advice to the industry on how this problem can be minimized. Yet, this is another area where policymakers need to actively contribute to effectively address this problem, in a harmonized way across all Member States, and promote targeted initiatives.
The ongoing developments in Artificial Intelligence (AI) and its application in sports nutrition also pose a crucial challenge when it comes to consumer safety. Following the recent introduction of the AI Act, decision makers now need to ensure that the enforcement of this regulation is balanced between protecting consumers and supporting innovative solutions and technology that can aid research and development in the industry.
ESSNA, in conjunction with its members, will be carrying out a targeted public affairs campaign engaging with EU policymakers and raising awareness of the above issues. Companies and organizations interested in finding our more and shaping the future of the sector can get in touch with ESSNA at info@essna.com
