The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is applying one standard of evidence for herbal products and another for vitamins and minerals in assessing health claim data, according to French consultancy, NutraVeris.
Article 13.1 health claims are being rejigged and resubmitted under the proprietary and emerging science, article 13.5, after EFSA rejected all but a few submissions in its second batch of 416 claim opinions yesterday.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued negative opinions to ‘most’ of 416 health claim dossiers including submissions linking health benefits to vitamin D, probiotics, green tea, black tea, lutein, beta glucans, meso-zeaxanthin, alpha-lipoic...
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will host a May summit at its Italian headquarters that will provide a rare opportunity for direct dialogue between stakeholders and the agency’s health claims panel.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) executive director, Catherine Geslain- Lanéelle, has told the Nutrition and Lifestyle conference in Brussels this morning that many of Thursday’s article 13.1 opinions have "insufficient evidence".
Cantox Health Science International’s Canadian-based, Food and Nutrition associate director, Kathy Musa-Velosa PhD, tells Shane Starling about how risk factors and biomarkers are being used as measures for disease reduction health claims.
Trial results gained from targeted populations such as those with disease can be extrapolated into normal populations to back health claims, the head of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claims panel said in Brussels yesterday.
In the final instalment in this series about antioxidants, NutraIngredients scans the regulatory landscape to see how the science backing the nutrient is being translated into law.
Energy shot drinks have come under fire from German authorities which are employing an old-school prohibition logic that history has repeatedly dunce-hatted.
Nutrition claims such as low-GI that have not made it onto official annex of the 2006 nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) register have technically been illegal since January 19 and could be prosecuted, according to a UK-based consultant.
The voluntary UK advertising watchdog has pulled up two Guernsey-based supplements manufacturers for making unsubstantiated claims about a host of mostly herbal products including ginkgo, ginseng, bilberry, St Johns Wort, milk thistle, valerian, soy isoflavones...
In the first instalment of this antioxidants special NutraIngredients scans a diverse global market that has barely been dented by the recession and continues to flourish amid consumer understanding that is often little more than surface deep.
At least one European Union member state has queried a recent reduced cartilage degeneration article 14 health claim submission that was turned down by EFSA partially because the studies submitted were not conducted on healthy populations.
Ten months after it withdrew its marquee probiotic submissions from the European Union health claims process for reconfiguring, Danone has fully re-entered the game by lodging a tweaked dossier for its drinking yoghurt, Actimel.
Dutch probiotics supplier, Winclove Bio Industries, has pulled its entire range of 30 health claim submissions from the European Union health claims process, in fear of the business impact of negative opinions from the claims assessor, EFSA.
Adding the omega-3 fatty acid docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) to infant formula may improve the visual acuity of the infants, says a new clinical trial from the US.
Danone Baby Nutrition says the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) failed to engage in “direct scientific dialogue” in the lead-up to the agency’s scientists handing it a negative opinion for a prebiotic-infant immunity health claim in December.
Regulatory uncertainty is now proving a bigger barrier to innovation in healthy foods than the weak economy, according to leading ingredients suppliers.
German health authorities have issued a 14-page statement warning against over-consumption of energy shots – one of the fastest growing segments of the international beverages market.
The UK Broadcast Committee of Advertising Practice (BCAP) has revised its guidelines to bring them in line with the 2006 European Union nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR).
GlaxoSmithKline-owned German firm, Abtei Pharma Vertriebs, wants the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) to reconsider its summer 2009 opinion that dose levels could not be established for a calcium/vitamin D bone health claim.
German supplier Rudolf Wild GmbH claims the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) failed to explain the reasons for rejecting its immunity health claim opinion, and has appealed to the assessor to revisit its submitted science.
The European Food Safety Authority should reconsider its methodology about relevant target populations, a German firm has stated in response to EFSA’s rejection of a health claim linking glucosamine and reduced risk of developing osteoarthritis.
Swedish probiotics player, Probi, is pursuing “unofficial” dialogue with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) after the scientific agency closed the formal process by rejecting its probiotic health claim appeal.
In a world with a chronic ‘globesity’ problem spreading beyond western shores to places like India and China, products that promise to help individuals manage their weight via calorie control, fat burning, satiety, or some other mechanism, enjoy rampant...
How usable are the health claims that have already been approved? First, companies need to see if there is any wiggle room around EFSA’s scientific language. Then, the thorny nutrient profiling is unclear. According to a food lawyer, if agreement can’t...
A health claim, under Article 13.5, for a French fish oil-based dietary supplement Catalgine that it can help to reduce the frequency of hot flushes in middle aged women has been rejected by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The European Food safety Authority (EFSA) rejected a submission from a Dutch plant sterol supplements firm calling for the EU approved, cholesterol-lowering health claim to be expanded to food supplements and other food categories.
Whether beauty foods and supplements fall under the EU health claims regulation is still a significant grey area, according to a new FSA consultation document.
Belgian ingredients giant, the Beneo Group, says new European Union health rules favour ‘active’ health claims such as phytosterols, while discounting ‘passive’ claims such as those that replace ingredients with healthier versions to make products healthier.
A dossier containing 13 randomised controlled trials, 6 observational studies, and 15 non-human studies has failed to impress European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientists because the four strains in question were not sufficiently characterised.
Pan-European better nutrition advocate, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), has merged with the American Association for Health Freedom (AAHF) to form the Alliance for Natural Health International.
DHA-related brain and eye health claims for infants have been backed by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), after it issued advice this month at the request of the European Commission.
Dispatches from the NI Health Claims 2010 conference
Concerns abound that the approach of the European Food Safety Authority towards health claims may stifle innovation and science, none more so than for prebiotics, says a leading researcher.
Dispatches from the NI Health Claims 2010 conference
Europe's leading trade groups are set for a meeting with the European Commission to discuss their concerns over the health claims assessment, and EFSA's reluctance to engage in dialogue.
More than six months after receiving a positive health claim opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) linking its tomato extract to blood circulation benefits, UK biotech firm Provexis has been handed final claim wording by the European...
Dispatches from the NI Health Claims 2010 conference
European Union health claims handed negative opinions by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) may be able to resubmit data under an article of the nutrition and health claims regulation, according to a European Commission official.
Dispatches from the NI Health Claims 2010 conference
Making claims based on non-conclusive but still substantial science is a "possible avenue" since denying a 'maybe' claim may challenge free speech rights, says a UK lawyer.
UK TV ads promoting a heart health measurement service on the website for Unilever’s plant sterol, cholesterol-lowering pro.activ range, have been backed by Advertising Standards Authority (ASA).
Dispatches from the NI Health Claims 2010 conference
US attorney Jonathan Emord draws parallels between his experiences in the US challenging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and the current health claims situation in Europe on the basis of free speech.
The affirmation that the omega-3 DHA can benefit cognitive and eye health offers hope to previously rejected claims. And it's business as usual regarding the overall health claims process, despite ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, said a European...
With ‘healthy’ populations identified as the ideal for the European Food Safety Authority’s health claims, NutraIngredients asks Yakult – what exactly is healthy?
Danone is calling for a clear health claims regulatory timetable to be implemented over the next few weeks because the current lack of clarity is “restricting the competitiveness of businesses”, reports our sister publication Food Manufacture.
Producing randomized clinical trials is never an inexpensive endeavour, but increasingly stringent criteria mean companies are facing tough choices on whether to pursuer innovation, says DSM Nutritional Products.
Leatherhead Food Research chief executive, Dr Paul Berryman, tells Shane Starling that despite a swathe of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claim rejections, the positive opinions that have come in offer much hope to industry.
For a fruit that has had more science conducted on it than most, it is surprising to some that France remains the only country to have approved a long-standing cranberry health claim.
The Irish Health Trade Association (IHTA) claims the scientific approach taken by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in its assessment of health claims for nutrients is seriously flawed.
As the European Union health claims climate evolves, companies are learning just what is required to demonstrate the benefits of healthy foods and supplements.