Dissatisfaction over the EU regulatory framework has risen sharply over the past year – with the health claims process and the deadlock on botanicals under particular scrutiny, research has found.
A lack of transparency behind the EU health claims approval process is stifling innovation and proving costly to businesses, the director of a global ingredients firm has claimed.
A best-practice guide to preparing EU health claims, aimed primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises, has been developed by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) in conjunction with the EU-funded Bacchus project.
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.
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.
GlaxoSmithKline (GSK) and Minerva Research Labs Ltd have fallen foul of the Advertising Standards Agency (ASA), as well as European health claims legislation, with adverts for nutritional supplements.
An online Ribena advert has been banned by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making exaggerated and misleading health claims about the benefits of the drink.
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.
The EU’s failure to introduce a system of nutrient profiling is resulting in “inconsistency” in health claims approvals for food and drink, it has emerged.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is "creating more problems than it solves" with its narrow interpretation of what constitutes a generic health claim descriptor.
The top three trends food manufacturers need to consider when devising functional products are ‘naturalness’, demand for energy products and the popularity of fruit – not least because the health properties are either already understood by consumers or...
Probiotic yogurt brands and supermarket own-label equivalents are leading a revolution in marketing of these products in advance of a ban, which comes into effect in December.
Consumer demand is sustaining probiotics sales, despite the blow of the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA's) health claims rejections, say some of industry's main players.
Vitafoods celebrates its 15th birthday next week. It’ll be my 11th consecutive May visit to Geneva for the jamboree and promises to be one of the most intriguing chapters with the (partial and belated) resolution of years of ambiguity regarding health...
Scientists will have a better understanding of how the body can take advantage of functional nutrients found in different food structures, following the results of a new collaborative research project.
Many food and drink manufacturers are set to abandon health claims approval under new EU legislation and go, instead, for nutrition claims, for which the approvals hurdle is much lower, according to experts.
Is marketing compatible with good food science? I ask this having recently attended two conferences on the new European Nutrition and Health Claims regulation at which the two appeared to be pulling in opposite directions.
Fears that European consumers could miss out on the potential health benefits offered by food science because of the European Food Safety Authority's (EFSA's) rejection of almost two thousand submissions for health claims approval could prove...
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.
Loopholes in the law may save probiotic yogurt manufacturers from having to remove products from sale when the new EU nutrition and health claims legislation comes into effect.
Manufacturers must review any health claims they make – on TV, in products, print advertising, and online – over the coming eight months or risk falling foul of new EU legislation, experts have warned.
Five years ago the European Union nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) became law. Around the bloc, hopeful EU healthy foods and supplements stakeholders submitted more than 44,000 health claim applications.
Food producers may still be able to make unverified health claims about their products, despite tougher European regulations coming into force early next year.
As Winston Churchill said at a crucial time during the Second World War: "This is not the end. It is not even the beginning of the end. But it is the end of the beginning." For food, drink and ingredients processors battling with health claims...
Last week's meeting between industry stakeholders and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) on gut health claims has left Danisco feeling 'slightly more positive', although many firms were left feeling disappointed by the lack of specific...
Armageddon appears to be fast approaching for vast swathes of the functional ingredients trade following the publication of the third batch of ‘article 13.1’ health claims opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
Food companies will increasingly have to pool resources and work with each other in order to fund the kind of human intervention studies required to support health claims, according to Coca-Cola Europe functional ingredients and external technology acquisition...
'Academic' references provided by the food industry to support applications under the EU health claims Regulation included excerpts from the Old Testament, Wikipedia, a Tea Association press release, a Royal Air Force report and the American...
The EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation is unlikely to stifle innovation within the food industry as many fear, according to a member of the European Food Safety Authority’s NDA panel speaking in London yesterday.
UK trading standards officers have been advised to adopt a “pragmatic approach” to the use of nutrition claims on food and drink packaging that are not currently in the official annex of approved claims but are under consideration by regulators.
“Many in industry are pinning their hopes on EFSA showing them the light at the meeting, including the likes of Danone, which withdrew three probiotic immunity/digestive health article 13.5 claims in April, citing clarification it is expecting on Big...
While low-glycaemic index (low-GI) health claims have suffered a major setback following last week’s negative opinion from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), it is “by no means the end of the road” for glycaemic control, according to experts in...
The market for products boasting satiety claims has not grown as fast as many market observers had predicted, ingredients suppliers at the Vitafoods show in Geneva have admitted
What does the recession mean for the nutraceuticals trade? Find out at Vitafoods, the place to be if you are buying or selling healthy ingredients, says Elaine Watson
