The European Commission has started the first phase of its investigation into the need for nutrient profiles, with a report expected in spring 2017. Yet with the caffeine claim fiasco ongoing, it’s never been clearer how necessary the profiles are.
The European Parliament’s Committee on Development has urged G8 member states “not to support GMO [genetically modified] crops in Africa” as part of its critical resolution on the New Alliance for Food Security and Nutrition - a decision agri giant Monsanto...
Terrorist attacks in the Belgian capital of Brussels today have left at least 34 people dead, in a series of coordinated attacks that have been condemned by industry and world leaders alike.
It is safe to include the sugar-derived sweetener sucralose in special medical foods for young children, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded.
The European Parliament’s Legal Affairs committee has voted to reject amendments to the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation, which would have seen nutrient profiles abandoned.
The Commission was wrong to separate the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Medicines Agency (EMA), nutrient profiles are unconvincing and the threat of botanical court action is unsurprising, a Member of the European Parliament (MEP)...
The new European Commission’s ‘better regulation’ mission must keep consumer welfare in mind and not translate to a “one-sided reduction” for businesses, the European Consumer Organisation (BEUC) has warned.
UK supplements group, Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), is targeting newly elected Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) in a campaign to raise awareness around still-up-for-grabs maximum permitted limits (MPLs) for vitamins and minerals in food...
EFSA MGMT BOARD: "Bernhard will ...provide Europe with the best scientific advice to protect consumers from food-related risks..."
Doctor Bernhard Url is the new chief of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) after its management board confirmed the acting-chief as its next executive director this week.
The question of how to define and label nano-scale ingredients will return to the drawing board, after the European Parliament rejected the Commission’s proposed regulation on Wednesday.
The divisive and long-unresolved battle over maximum permitted levels (MPL) of vitamins and minerals in foods and food supplements in the EU intensified today with a UK based group leaking documents detailing lobbying intentions of a newly formed pan-European...
The European Commission has defended its decision to nominate four food industry experts to EFSA’s managing board, saying that EFSA’s founding regulation states four out of the 14 board members should represent “consumers and other interests in the food...
After NutraIngredients attended EFSA’s one-day transparency debate recently, we sat down with panel heads, and found an agency content with its transparency progress and its broader role as protector of EU food safety.
The European Parliament has passed legislation banning the use of images of babies on packs of infant and follow-on formula in an attempt to prevent the idealisation of breast milk substitutes over breast milk.
Patrick Ahern, a former industry advisor, trade group manager and consultant on EU law and affairs, is the new director General of the European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM).
The European Food Safety Authority failed to take adequate measures to prevent conflict of interests arising from a major 'revolving doors' case in 2008, according to a final EU Ombudsman ruling on the case.
Revision of the laws governing specialist food products like sports foods, infant foods and gluten-free foods is set for a final vote in the European Parliament in December or January, 2013, with the leading industry group broadly welcoming the passage.
The European Dietetic Food Industry Association (IDACE) says first-reading amendments to EU dietetic food laws approved in the European Parliament today can provide the basis for a ‘soft landing’ even as the current proposal sees the removal of images...
MEPs have voted to delay approving the way in which the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) spent EU funds in 2010 over concerns about possible conflicts of interest within the body and the high costs of its management board meetings.
Matthias Groote, the German MEP and chair of the European Parliament Environment, Public Health and Food Safety (ENVI) committee has praised the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its health claims and food safety work.
The evaluation of general function health claims under article 13.1 is “inappropriate and disproportionate”, an alliance of European food, supplement and ingredient companies has said in a letter to the European Parliament president.
Irish MEP Marian Harkin said the European nutrition industry must look forward after a European Parliamentary committee yesterday rejected a bid to overturn a controversial, 222-strong health claims list.
British MEP Julie Girling is proposing a ‘middle way’ to the European health claims furore. She wants her fellow European Parliamentarians to back the existing work of EFSA and the European Commission, after which the EP’s newly won power to carry out...
The UK food supplements and healthy foods industry is backing a motion among some European Parliamentarians to veto the article 13 health claims register containing 2000 rejections that could be law in three months.
MEPs have rejected the revised nutrition claims list recently adopted by the European Commission, a move which could be detrimental for reformulation efforts in the food sector says a trade body.
The positive health claim for creatine and sports performance that was one of 222 that passed to the European parliament for writing into European law, should be put on ice, because it is confounded by conditions of use (CoU), a UK consultant has said.
Today the European Commission meets to decide whether or not to send the controversial European Union health claims register to the European Parliament – now is no time to abort the process says European ingredients giant, Beneo.
Food and supplement industry groups across the European Union are ratcheting up pressure on EU parliamentarians to block the passage into law of a health claims register that is likely to contain more than 2500 general function claim rejections.
British Labour Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Glenis Willmott, is writing to the European Commission to block a DHA eye development claim being used on infant follow-on formula products, after the EP last week failed to veto the claim.
Just as with the 2006 nutrition and health claim regulation (NHCR) itself, next week's European Parliament (EP) vote on whether to allow products aimed at 6-12 month old infants to bear omega-3 DHA-related eye development claims promises to be highly...
An inability by the European Parliament and Council to reach an agreement on the novel foods update due to disagreement over cloned animals and their offspring would send the message that no-one really cares about innovation, says consultant.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) are questioning whether omega-3 form DHA can benefit infant eye sight, despite the nutrient winning endorsement from one of the world’s toughest claims assessment agencies – the European Food Safety Authority...
Irish Member of the European Parliament Jim Higgins has tabled questions about the European Commission’s activities regarding vitamin D consumption and deficiency across the bloc, according to PA International.
A group of eight Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) met with EFSA representatives last week to discuss matters including health claims, nutrient profiling, GMOs and nanotechnology in food.
Members of the European Parliament have voted to put back clauses on nutrient profiling into the proposed food information regulation, after Environment Committee members voted to take them out – but it was a close call.
The European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM) has called on the European Commission to halt to the “piecemeal adoption” of article 13 of the EU nutrition and health claims regulation.
The EU Parliament Petitions Committee have voted to keep open five petitions that question the European Commission’s proposal to limit maximum levels of vitamins and minerals in the EU bloc under the Food Supplements Directive.
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 group of international scientists that last week petitioned the European Commission to amend a mooted omega-3 labelling regulation they believe would confuse consumers, have vowed to continue their fight in the European Parliament, after the EC backed...
A meeting held yesterday in Dublin has confirmed European Commission/European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) scientific safety substantiation principles in the setting of maximum permitted levels (MPLs) for vitamins and minerals in food supplements.
The European Parliament is next month set to vote on a report that
calls obesity a "European epidemic" and proposes that all countries
implement certain measures to combat the growing condition.
The EU's legislators yesterday came up with a compromise deal on
nutritional claims, further watering down requirements originally
proposed by the European Commission, according to a newspaper
report.
The European Breakfast Cereal Association (CEEREAL) has hailed two
important pieces of European food legislation as "broadly positive'
for the future of the industry.
The chances of the European Parliament and Council of Ministers
reaching an agreement over the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Made
on Foods proposal without conciliation looked more unlikely than
ever at a first exchange of views...
Proposals to create a list of about 100 vitamins and mineral
substances that may be added to foods are being debated in the
European Parliament today, part of the long process of harmonising
food legislation in the bloc, reports Ahmed...
Environment Committee at Europe's Parliament votes to delete
controversial article four on nutrient profiles and redraft article
11, in proposed rules for nutrition and health claims.
