Crucial health claims vote this week

Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) will vote this week on the controversial European nutrition and health claims proposal at a plenary meeting of the European Parliament in Strasbourg.

If the European Council does not agree with MEPs on the most contentious clauses in the proposed regulation (nutrient profiling and a prior approvals process for new health claims), they will be forced into conciliation, said David Hare at public and parliamentary affairs consultant, the Whitehouse Consultancy.

He said: “The MEPs will vote, and then it goes back to Council. If they don't like what they see, we move to a conciliation process. If they do, the legislation should be formally adopted by early summer.”

In its original form, nutrient profiling (enshrined in article four of the regulation) would prevent manufacturers from making health claims about ingredients in a product if its overall nutrient profile were deemed to be unhealthy. This has been bitterly opposed by many food manufacturers, who claim that it could deter investment in functional foods and ingredients.

However, a compromise being pushed for by some MEPs could see health claims allowed on products ranked as 'unhealthy', provided that labels also highlighted high levels of fat or other nutrients and took into account things such as daily intake of the foods in question.

In March, the Environment Committee of the European Parliament voted for a compromise over the equally controversial 'prior approvals' process for companies registering new health claims.

This would enable some new claims to be fast-tracked through a six-month Community Registration procedure via the European Food Safety Authority.

However, any claims about disease risk reduction or claims targeted at children would still have to go through the full prior authorisation process, which could take up to three years.