The Court of Justice of the European Union (ECJ) has backed key principles of the EU health claims regulation – and closed potential loopholes, according to a leading UK lawyer.
More than 70 stakeholders attended a botanicals workshop in the European Parliament’s Brussels offices last week as the heat increases to resolve regulatory ambiguity across the EU for herbal products - especially that ambiguity's impact on SMEs.
UK group Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) says meetings with “5-6” Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) last week shows widespread concern over mooted changes that would restrict high-dose food supplements across the EU.
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) says there is no need for separate sports products regulation as general food law is sufficient, ahead of a European Commission report on the matter due within two years.
The increasingly vocal International Probiotics Association (IPA) has sent a series of formal questions to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) about evidential requirements for probiotics.
European food industry trade body FoodDrinkEurope has welcomed formal negotiations between the European Union and the United States on a Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership (TTIP), announced at the G8 Summit in Northern Ireland.
Energy drink leader Red Bull – previously hit by EU rejection of taurine health claims – is boosting its energy-attention marketing by using approved vitamin B claims.
Prunes sold across the European Union can claim they contribute to “normal bowel function”, making the fruits the first whole fruit to win a claim under the EU’s new food marketing rules.
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) has welcomed today’s European Parliament vote that means sports nutrition products will move to general food law as existing special foods regulations are overhauled after years of debate.
The European Union has pledged to spend an 'unprecedented' €3.5 billion on improving battling malnutrition accross the globe, reveals Commissioner Piebalgs.
An industry group that includes Danone and Dupont-Danisco as members has written to the European Commission to reinstate the use of the EU-banned term ‘probiotic’ on products across the bloc.
Irish authorities have clarified the country’s position in regard to probiotic health claims, taking a literal reading of the EU position that the term ‘probiotic’ alone is an implied health claim.
US-based foods and supplements manufacturer, Now International, hasn’t sat on its hands since the EU’s new health claim laws kicked into play in 2008 – taking pre-emptive action to keep abreast of the new formulation and health claims landscape.
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 long-awaited reform of EU rules governing ‘special’ foods like baby and gluten-free foods, is imminent with a June 11 vote to mandate the changes – and most stakeholders satisfied with the likely ratification.
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.
An special interest group made up of leading players in the UK herbal industry has come together to request an urgent meeting with UK ministers amid reports that the government will back-track on its promises to regulate herbalists under UK rather than...
Updated EU regulations on the limits for silicon dioxide and silicate in food supplements have been welcomed by Food Supplements Europe after the members of the trade body spotted an error in legislation.
A group of European health organisations has urged European Commission president José Manuel Barroso to issue a proposal on nutrient profiling as part of a wider EU goal to reduce premature deaths.
The Dutch start-up Medical Brands is finding success with cranberry products that have won UTI and vaginal treatment claims via the EU medical devices directive.
With cranberry health claims rejected in the European Union, some players have ventured down the medical devices route where therapeutic claims are possible that would never succeed under the EU’s strict health claim rules. Not a good thing, says Gunter...
French supplements association (Synadiet) president Alban Maggiar has been appointed chair of the European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM).
Now that the dust has settled on the health claims submission process we should all be very clear on the rules of engagement. Well kind of, says Nigel Baldwin, chief consultant in Intertek’s European office.
A former EFSA Scientific Committee chairman says the European Union’s stalled assessment of botanical extract claims, safety and use needs a multilateral rethink before any progress can be made.
The EU’s long-winded novel foods rules have long been viewed as an innovation-crimping legal structure, but a stream-lining of the process means companies should not fear it, a consultant says.
Aggrieved companies and trade groups have already mounted legal actions against the EU’s strict health claim laws – they are in process – but the regulation’s workings could face fresh challenge from governments signed up to the World Trade Organization...
Belgian, French and Italian authorities have agreed a preliminary list of botanical substances for use in foods and supplements, after a meeting in Rome yesterday.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) is calling for views on two DSM applications to extend the European Union Novel Foods status for its DHA-rich and EPA-rich algal oils.
Chr. Hansen is still positive about probiotics – including in Europe – despite disappointing results in another two clinical trials, according to Chr. Hansen’s chief financial officer (CFO) Klaus Pedersen.
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) is set to expand its remit to become a trade body for the European sports nutrition sector, the group says.
Poland’s €583m vitamins and minerals food supplements market is evolving toward ever-more sophisticated and specific claims according to a market analyst.
A new European Union backed project will to optimise research into diet and health by pulling together scientists and research tools in order to make realistic recommendations in the area.
Europe’s new multilateral food supplements group says there is no inherent conflict between its big player-small player membership as all share the same goal of amending scientific requirements under the EU’s strict new health claim rules.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has been asked by the EU to produce a report on the nutritional value of follow-on formulas and children’s or toddlers' milks that may inform labeling updates across the block.
Irish supplier Willows Ingredients has launched a UK-based European division to target smaller continental European markets and says the Eurozone economic problems are no barrier to growth.
Better dialogue with regulators and scientists is the main purpose of a new European food supplements group formed today by a diverse alliance of national groups and ingredients and supplement players – both small and large.
Poland is failing to recognise EU laws that promote free trade across member states when it comes to food supplements – and has been given two months to alter its laws or face EU court action.
Food supplement markets in Poland, the Czech Republic, Romania, Hungary, Bulgaria and Slovakia have pushed through the €1bn mark for the first time, with Romania starring with 24% growth in 2011, says a new report.
Pictures are much more powerful than words when it comes to health claim marketing according to Dutch researchers who have completed a study of Dutch dairy Campina’s weight control yoghurt, Optimel Control.
UK food supplements lobby group, Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), has launched a new campaign to keep maximum permitted levels (MPL) for food supplements in UK hands.
Charging the private sector for European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) work will not generate enough cash and compromise the agency’s independence, a European Commission working group has found.
A Romanian government official has lodged an official complaint against eastern and central European food supplements mega-brand, Walmark, which it says exploits legal loopholes to bully competitors from market.
Southern Israel-based algae-sourced astanxanthin specialists Algatechnologies has won investment from a UK venture capitalist in a move that will broaden its capacity, R&D and distribution scope for the eye and skin health carotenoid.
The European probiotic sector is moving forward with research around probiotic strain clusters it is hopeful can win the sector’s first health claim in the European Union.
One of the EU’s most venerated food law experts stated the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) has become so convoluted as to be unworkable, at a Brussels congress yesterday.
Italian food supplement manufacturers continue to make probiotic health claims under a “soft law” governmental decree, although the country’s stance could be challenged by EU organs, a lawyer said this morning at congress.
On a train to Brussels to cover NutraIngredients’ Probiotech and Microbiota two-day probiotic congress, had me wondering of the sector mood now it has had its claims ripped up by the EU’s hardline health claim process.
