An open letter penned by three leading health and consumer organisations - together with five food companies - calls for the ‘urgent adoption’ of nutrient profiles in the context of the EU health claims framework.
The European Commission is 'wasting the time' of the botanical industry by trying to fix a 'fairy tale' problem of harmonising European rules, according to the author of a book which criticises EU health claims legislation.
The aims of health claims are to encourage fair competition, prevent the public from being mislead and to promote innovation, but more and more companies are being put off by the application process. What needs to change?
Health claim applications to the European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) are too lengthy and too expensive, experts from the EU-backed Rediclaim said during its recent online conference.
In an effort to reduce misleading uses of health claims on advertising for nutritional products, the Italian government has published a decree detailing financial penalties.
Belgium releases its third update to BELFRIT (Belgium, France, Italy) list of approved botanicals, as a list of more than 2, 000 health claims are still waiting to be approved by the European Commission.
Europe’s central food science agency has issued fresh guidance on health claims including a ‘standardised format’ and clarification of data requirements.
The EU has authorised only a small fraction of the health claims submitted to it, with a number of categories seeing no authorised claims at all, according to a new analysis of the bloc’s uber-strict health claim process.
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to veto four caffeine health claims following a lively debate on energy drinks in a Strasbourg plenary today.
For the first time the European Union has lost a member after the British people yesterday voted to leave the bloc which began life as the European Economic Community in 1951.
After retiring last February as head of the European Commission’s DG SANTE food legislation unit, Basil Mathioudakis is spreading the world globally about the merits of the EU’s food and nutrition regulation as a consultant to industry and governments.
The Italian advertising standards body has pulled up Forsamax, a supplement for treating erectile dysfunction, for misleading advertising - providing further proof that the European Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR) has no weight in Italy,...
A leading probiotics academic has called for EFSA to be “disbanded” saying that the effect of the EU’s central food science agency’s treatment of probiotic claims has been “confusion in Europe”, and that the EU could learn from the Canadian approach to...
80% of surveyed products don't pass WHO nutrient profile
What’s the difference between a chocolate bar and an apple? Not much if you go by the misuse of health claims on food in Germany and the Netherlands says campaign group FoodWatch, after evaluating over 600 products making prominent claims to be healthy,...
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) says the nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) could be applied to “commercial communications” intended for professionals but with the goal of indirectly reaching consumers.
Be careful what you say about your competitors, it could be considered a health claim, the UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has told supplement retailer Genr8online.
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.
Swedish supplements player New Nordic has had eye health claims slapped down in the UK, even though its ‘Blue Berry Eyebright plus’ product included vision-approved vitamin A.
The European Commission has launched a ‘fitness check/roadmap’ with a special focus on the EU’s botanical health claims imbroglio and the nutrient profile of foods able to bear health claims. Both issues remain unresolved under EU health claim laws introduced...
A harmonised system of graded nutrition and health claims depending on the product and consumer impact would be ‘preferable’ to current global disparity, say researchers behind an international review of 28 different legislations.
Urgent action is needed to amend the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulations (NHCR) to allow food and drink (F&D) manufacturers to make better use of them, a legal expert has claimed.
Adding in ingredients like vitamin C to make legal immune health claims may sell products short term, but this sucks the blood from more challenging ingredients like probiotics and botanicals, says a marketing expert.
The European Court of Justice (ECJ) has rejected a joint plea from the UK Health Food Manufacturers' Association (HFMA) and the Dutch NPN for the permitted health claims list regulation to be annulled.
On the back of a successful US launch, Lycored will release its nutraceutical ingredient in Europe as it predicts growth opportunities for the Beauty from Within segment.
The percentage of food and drink launches carrying digestive health claims has fallen from 2.4% in 2009 to 2.2% in 2014 in the EU, says Innova Market Insights.
Thousands of European food and drink firms are missing out on the £27bn global functional food market because of restrictive health claims wording, leading nutritionists have complained.
Unlike health claims, ‘beauty from within’ claims are regulated post-market and only when challenged – and how this process goes will depend on the case and the member state concerned.
Sugar low: “The use of such a health claim would convey a conflicting and confusing message..."
Five glucose health claims approved by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) back in 2012 have been officially banned by the European Commission due to concerns over what they would say to consumers about sugar consumption.
Good science and trial design must be a focus for companies putting together new health claims dossiers, but that may not mean what you think it does, says NDA Panel member Hans Verhagen.
The global functional food market is forecast to reach $54bn (€43bn), an increase of 25% compared to the last available data from 2013, says Leatherhead Food Research.
Regulators in Italy’s €1.2bn food supplements market are cracking the harshest whips against health claims abusers in the EU – a firm was recently fined €250,000 – but will the wounds be deep enough to change the market?
Last week NutraIngredients published a guest article by author Bert Schwitters about the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) that discussed the status of botanicals and associated claims in the European Union. Schwitters was not happy with...
Innovative systems-based models of NPD must be adopted by small and large players alike if the nutrition industry is to have success in developing functional foods that are backed by health claims, say researchers.
Nutrition author, blogger and harsh critic of the EU’s health claim laws, Bert Schwitters, says any attempt to create separate rules for more than 1500 on-hold botanical claim applications is doomed to failure in this guest article.
The pending health claims for caffeine and bowel-function botanical hydroxyanthracene are the "hot potatoes" being dealt with by EFSA and the European Commission, according to the head of the Commission's unit for nutrition, food composition...
"We aren’t going to wake up one day and everything will be crystal clear; there’s going to be some trial and error going through it.”
By RJ Whitehead & Shane Starling at Health Ingredients-Japan in Tokyo
Japan will implement a new health claims system that is set to supersede its strict FOSHU regime in April 2015 – just six months away – but what form will it take and will it meet its deadline?
An Italian botanical supplements manufacturer has been given 30 days to pay a €250,000 fine after local authorities busted it for grossly exaggerated and unsubstantiated web-based health claims around immunity, diabetes, HIV, Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s...
Planning, wording and relevant science are the keys to fibre health claim success in the EU, researchers have found after scrutinising the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) approach to hydrocolloids.
In this guest article EU food law expert Luca Bucchini, PhD, explains why it is time for a serious review of the EU’s health claim system. Bringing in behavioural scientists for starters...
Functional food firms often stumble on communicating health claims in the public domain, says Leatherhead Food Research as it launches a marketing and claims advisory service.
Cross-border communication must be provided to combat the confusion caused by the 24 subtly different language versions of EU-approved health claims, as well as countless other cultural nuances, according to an EU food law expert.
UK-based Probiotics International Ltd (PIL) is replacing all references to ‘probiotics’ with ‘live bacteria’ in its marketing materials after the UK advertising watchdog ruled ‘probiotic’ to be an unauthorised implied health claim under EU rules.
The founder of the International Probiotics Association (IPA) has called on the Global Alliance for Probiotics (GAP) to work with it to develop the science and dossiers that can win health claims in Europe and elsewhere.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) policing of EU health claims offers a ray of light to food firms looking to use them in advertising, according to Eversheds senior partner Owen Warnock.
Benecol has expanded its plant stanol, cholesterol management-based health offering in the UK by adding vitamins that permit approved EU heart and bone health claims – a move analysts said should resonate with older consumers and give rival pro-activ...
