The European islands of Guernsey and Jersey are working together to bring them into compliance with European Union laws on claims, labelling and formulation.
DG Sanco has reignited the nutrient profiling debate by initiating a consultation with other parts of the European Commission to test support for it to set nutrient profiles under health claims legislation.
European Union food law experts say the legal challenge to the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) mounted yesterday by two trade groups and three companies had some merit, although its attack on the despised NHCR’s scientific criteria is...
Food supplement and healthy food groups in the UK and the Netherlands have appealed to EU courts to annul the recently approved ‘Permitted List Regulation’ that wrote into law 222 health claims and rejected about 1500 others.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) appears to have nailed shut the door for soy-cholesterol reducing health claims in the European Union, after dismissing a series of formal objections to its third rejection of the bean’s cholesterol-lowering capacity.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will host a health claims seminar in Copenhagen next week in conjunction with the National Food Institute at the Technical University of Denmark.
All Nordic nations except Norway have joined the UK in acting against the pre-workout stimulant DMAA, with Sweden and Finland joining Denmark in issuing withdrawal alerts or destroying products.
Australian authorities have warned consumers about possible negative health effects of using sports supplements containing DMAA, as the global crackdown on the controversial stimulant continues.
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...
Japanese CoEnzymeQ10 leader, Kaneka, is finding success in new product formats like olive oil for the heart health nutrient, even as its health claims have joined the long list of rebuttals under the EU’s new uber-strict system.
European academics have warned of the likely devastation to the botanicals sector if Europe ignores tradition-of-use (TOU) data in favour of randomised clinical trials when assessing herbal food supplement health claims.
The new 6 million euro, EU backed satiety project will have a legacy long beyond its time-frame, as the collaborative effort looks to change the way the European market deals with the obesity crisis it faces.
The controversial European Union article 13 health claim list has this morning been published in the Official Journal of the European Union, giving companies until December 14 to get their claim-making in order.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has concluded that plant stanols and sterols can more powerfully reduce cholesterol reduction after assessing fresh data submitted by category leaders, Raisio and Unilever.
It’s official. Companies have six months – until December – to comply with the controversial European Union article 13, general function health claims register which today won final approval from the European Commission.
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.
Food supplements are ideally suited for online sales: stable, light, high-value, popular with consumers. It is therefore no surprise that online food supplement sales are on the rise with the promise of lower prices and home delivery.
€3 million and seven years of research and development work have paid off for Medical Brands which has won the right to make medical urinary tract infection (UTI) claims in the EU and beyond with its cranberry partner, Decas Botanical Synergies (DBS).
European food and medicines agencies will follow the lead of the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) which last week issued warning letters to 10 manufacturers over safety and authenticity concerns for DMAA products, an EU food law expert has said.
German firm Vital Solutions has debuted an “IP protected” mint family extract that in-vitro and ex-vivo testing has shown to reduce gastrointestinal discomfort.
The author of a new 452-page book that decimates the European Union nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) for crippling commercial free speech and consumer choice, says the regulation should be taken to European courts by the end of July this...
The European Commission’s work to create a nutrient profiling system to restrict claims on certain foods will once again come up for discussion in 2013 when the Commission presents its second proposal on the issue, says a leading policy expert.
The British Specialist Nutrition Association (BSNA) says the 222-claim strong, European Union general function health claims list that is set to enter law books as early as next month, is a just reward for the investment made by the food industry across...
Israeli omega-3 and probiotic supplements manufacturer Anlit has teamed up with Finnish supplements marketer Axellus Group on a lactose-free probiotic chew aimed primarily at children.
Three years late and seeking further extensions, nutrient profiles remain the missing link in the European Union’s new health claim regime. Frustrated stakeholders say the time to decide is nigh.
Manufacturers are still not sure how much flexibility they have in wording health claims because guidance from the European Commission (EC) is not yet available.
Frustration at the inability of European Union lawmakers to decide on nutrient profiling rules made unusual bedfellows of health NGOs and Big Food representatives, who have agreed the EU would be better to borrow a model already in use than pursue its...
Dispatches from the 6th Nutrition & Lifestyle conference in Brussels
A 6-year project tackling obesity and other diet and physical activity-related health issues across the European Union has spawned 300 individual positive actions by government, commercial and other actors – and is not set to wind up until next year.
Dispatches from the 6th Nutrition & Lifestyle conference in Brussels
Industry has become accustomed to feeling annoyed and hamstrung by the European Union nutrition and health claims regulation, but UK consumer watchdog Which? told a conference today that the rules should be even more closely enforced to help baffled consumers.
The UK’s 220 Trading Standards (TS) agencies are failing to take action against products making ‘spurious’ health claims, a local charity has found after testing the system.
The UK food sector remains ‘undecided’ about non-GMO soy lecithin compared to the level of demand that exists in other European markets said CERT ID as Thew Arnott becomes the first UK supplier to get ProTerra backing on sustainable sourcing of the ingredient.
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.
The European Parliament’s Public Health and Food Safety Committee (ENVI) has today voted to block the proposed veto to the Article 13 health claims register.
Europe’s premier food industry body, FoodDrinkEurope (FDE), is backing next week’s European Parliament (EP) vote on the controversial 222-strong health claim register, as opponents rally last-minute veto support.
Successful or otherwise, the European Union healthy foods and supplements space is unlikely to be much altered by a just-issued legal challenge to the bloc’s controversial nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR), a UK food law expert has said.
The two German professors of law and nutrition that were rebutted by EFSA and the European Commission over a water-hydration health claim have made good their threat, and dragged the controversial EU regulation into court.
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...
Irish MEP Marian Harkin has become one of the most vocal European parliamentary opponents of the interpretation and application of the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR), and she was not appeased by EC and EFSA statements at a specially...
By Shane Starling at the European Parliament in Brussels
More than 40 European Parliamentarians and their representatives gathered today at a specially convened health claims workshop to explain intricacies and air grievances about the nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR).
Sales of probiotic drinking yoghurts like Yakult and Danone Actimel are flatlining or dropping in most western European markets, and even in Japan where the concept was born, but BRIC markets are surging, and spoonables are shining brighter.
The newly formed Global Alliance for Probiotics (GAP) has issued its first public statement, affirming that a complete rethink of probiotic health claim rules is required in the European Union, and forwarding industry rights to take part in that process.
DMAA-containing Jack3D and products like it are unauthorised drugs and being stripped from UK retail shelves and online catalogues as part of a crackdown against sports supplements by the medicines regulator, the MHRA.
DMAA (methylhexaneamine/1,3-dimethylamylamine) has become the subject of urgent discussions between UK food and medicines regulators to determine the status of the controversial sports supplement stimulant.
Danone has formed the Global Alliance for Probiotics (GAP) with other sector giants like Yakult, DuPont-Danisco and Chr Hansen as the frustrated industry seeks to win a first European Union health claim.
The recent veto of 'percentage less' claims by MEPs is indicative of a lack of trust in the food industry, said the UK trade group, the Food and Drink Federation (FDF), which is intent on continuing to push for such amendments to the health...
Global probiotics leader Danone continues to prepare for the worst under the European Union’s uber-strict health claims regime that may this year deliver a barren, claimless landscape to the world’s biggest-selling functional food category, an official...
A Danone official has said the resolution of characterisation issues may not be enough to win positive opinions for a batch of probiotic health claims just resubmitted to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) has taken a swipe at the newly formed Herbal Quality Campaign (QHC) in the UK, labelling its concerns about herbal food supplements “bogus”.
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.
