Healthy food claims row gives Europe one fat legal headache
The battle at the heart of Europe over plans to regulate health claims made for food has intensified.
The Nutrition and Health Claims Made on Foods proposal is scheduled for a first reading in the European Parliament (EP) this month, but the latest amendments voted on by the EP's Environment Committee and Internal Market Committee clash with the European Council of Ministers' views.
The original proposal would have forced all companies with products bearing performance or health claims to submit evidence to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for approval.
The committees of MEPs would prefer firms only to have to notify EFSA of plans to sell products carrying health claims, to allow for official objections or bans.
They have also objected to the use of nutrient profiling and the proposed ban on all weight-loss, well-being, psychological and behavioural claims.
The Whitehouse Consultancy, lobbying on behalf of sports, nutrition and health food manufacturers, said the legislation would be onerous, bureaucratic and costly. The md Chris Whitehouse said it would prevent manufacturers giving accurate information to consumers, while Whitehouse's lead health claims executive David Hare said the requirement to submit a scientific dossier in all the European Union languages would disproportionally affect small firms.
At a recent Food & Drink Federation seminar, former MEP David Bowe said he doubted EFSA's ability to handle the authorisation process and predicted a "bottleneck" in approvals.
Meanwhile, UK dairy industry representatives have submitted three health claims under the UK's voluntary code run by the Joint Health Claims Initiative (JHCI). Two relate to dental and skeletal health and a third is a 'comparative' claim that milk is healthier than other drinks. If approved, they could be used by all milk and cheese producers.
Dairy UK's technical director Dr Ed Komorowski said that the claims were based on well-established concepts . The trade bodies hope to gain approval before the new European law is passed.
However, the JHCI has not approved any comparative claim before and, if the European legislation includes nutrient profiling, dairy products could be precluded from making any claims.
