Law provides a framework to investigate the use of forced labour in companies’ supply chains. All goods made using forced labour to be halted at EU borders and withdrawn from the market.
The European Commission has discussed the creation of an EU working group to bring some regulatory harmonisation over use of the term ‘probiotic’ across Member States.
The European supplements industry has expressed widespread support for government-enforced sustainability standards in a Vitafoods Survey, but it doesn’t want to shoulder the cost.
The European Commission has published recommendations that try to clarify the definition of nanomaterials often used in nutrient delivery systems in nanoenabled foods and beverages.
EU Member States took another step forward in banning Titanium Dioxide (E171) use by unanimously voting for its exclusion from the region, in line with EFSA’s concerns over safety.
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) today reveals a manifesto, in which it looks to match consumers with products that complement balanced diets and support active lifestyles.
The European Commission (EC) moves to decrease the maximum limit of mycotoxin contaminant deemed acceptable for supplements fermented with red yeast rice.
Nutritional labelling is an emotive subject in Europe, drawing strong responses from all sides of the debate. As the European Commission prepares to release its report on the topic next year, can – and indeed should – consensus be reached for a single...
Dispatches from IPA World Congress + Probiota 2018
Companies keen to do the so-far impossible – gain an EFSA approved health claim – should hold off on applications for now, and ensure new dossiers are kept simple in the future, regulatory experts told delegates at the recent IPA World Congress + Probiota...
The difficulty in getting a probiotic health claim approved and the botanical stand-off may explain why one in three industry professionals find the current EU framework unhelpful and difficult to navigate.
The European Commission says it will begin the process of establishing a legal definition of vegetarian and vegan food in 2019, an announcement that has been welcomed by food manufacturers.
Industry should fight amendments to a Belgian decree setting out minimum and maximum levels for caffeine, lutein, lycopene and red yeast rice, because some proposed levels fall well below established EFSA safety data, an expert claims.
With around 2000 botanicals claims on-hold whilst the European Commission comes up with a solution, individual countries and supplement companies are taking matters into their own hands.
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.
By Bert Schwitters, author of Health Claims Censored
If the European Commission’s regulatory rethink is to provide any meaningful improvement for the botanical industry, it must set a clear legal definition of what botanicals actually are, argues author and commentator Bert Schwitters.
‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the bloc not a firm was stirring, not even the Brussels flock. Nutrition industry stakeholders have hung up their stockings by the chimney with care, in hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there… but...
BASF says the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) failed to fulfil its health claim assessment remit after the Parma-based agency last month rejected its CLA-weight management appeal.
Indiana firm Vesta Ingredients has won EU novel foods approval for its vitamin K2 form as it has been determined to be equivalent to a form already on-market and proven to be safe.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has confirmed the safety of two synthetic oligosaccharides - opening the door for their use in infant and follow-on formula.
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.
Food and drink manufacturers would face higher long-term costs if Britain quits the EU, but the move would have less impact on business than some “scare-mongering” reports suggest.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) needs a role change but that won’t come with its transparency initiative but legalisation changes, says industry.
Friends of the Earth Germany has said it will step up its fight to protect bees after German chemical giant Bayer CropScience failed to sue it in court for claiming that a pesticide manufactured by the company could harm bees.
The Dutch supplements trade group NPN has severed ties with EHPM, the Europe-wide group it was a founding member of, citing differences in approaches to EU health claim reform.
Tailored diets, sustainability, integrated policy-making and consumer awareness of the link between food and health are the four research priority ideas identified in the European Commission’s (EC) foresight report.
A Dutch healthy foods and supplements association has proposed a traditional claims regulation or amendment to EU health claim laws it says would ‘elegantly’ solve the ongoing and stalled imbroglio about how traditional food use data can back claims.
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.
More non-governmental organisations are backing Greenpeace and HEAL in their efforts to scrap the position of European Commission’s chief scientific advisor (CSA).
The Joint FAO-WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives' (JECFA) backing of the use of red algae ingredient carrageenan in liquid infant formula will carry a "a great deal of weight" in regulatory circles, says seaweed industry representative,...
From the 2014 International PlantLIBRA Conference in Vienna, Austria
As the EU’s ambitious €6m PlantLIBRA project to further botancials science drew to a close this week at a congress in Vienna, we asked the European Commission about the project’s relative merits – and whether a ‘mark 2’ was on the cards.
The European Commission has adopted new measures to reduce consumer’s maximum levels of exposure to cadmium in foods such as chocolate and infant formula.
The passing of European legislation on the use of omega-3 rich chia oil will open up the use of trendy chia in dairy products, Ingredia Nutritional believes.
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...
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 Commission has passed a law meaning generic descriptors for food and beverage products which could be construed as health claims will only be allowed if they have been in use for more than 20 years.
The European sports nutrition sector is stringently regulated and not awash with contaminated products, the industry has confirmed in a new booklet aimed at public and politicians alike.
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.
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.
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.
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.