The European Commission has brushed aside Europe-wide industry protests to forge ahead with implementation of the controversial Nutrition & Health Claims Regulation.
On Monday (December 5) a European Commission standing committee voted in favour of a Permitted List of Article 13.1 claims. The vote has further alarmed industry groups who say that “huge issues” exist for the thousands of claims that have failed to make it onto the List.
If the proposal for a Permitted List is approved by the European Parliament it will authorise European food suppliers to use 224 health claims linked to just 70 foods and ingredients, EU-wide. Around 2,500 other claims that did not receive positive opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), will be banned. The European Parliament now has 90 days to scrutinise the proposal before making its decision.
Commenting on the latest development Graham Keen, executive director of the Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA), said:
“We are obviously disappointed that the Commission has decided to turn a blind eye to the serious concerns of the European-wide natural products industry, and press on regardless with the implementation of this Regulation. It is by no means clear that stakeholders, including MEPs and member state officials, will be given an opportunity to fully scrutinise and debate a move that threatens the future wellbeing of the European-wide natural health products industry and its millions of consumers.”
The Commission’s approach risks backfiring and it could deny consumers the very information that they are increasingly wanting about how and why products might be used, and what reasonable expectations they might have for their effectiveness. In addition, implementing a Regulation that has been clearly demonstrated to show that there will be hugely damaging financial impact in times of such economic hardship seems wholly inappropriate. The Commission appears to be completely disregarding our legitimate concerns.”
Speaking ahead of the EC Standing Committee’s vote, at a packed HFMA meeting in London, Keen told delegates: “If the standing committee votes to adopt the Permitted List the clock starts ticking. This goes right to the heart of our industry, the heart of what we do.”
He added: “The market for food supplements is driven by claims. But we are facing a situation where, in a worst-case scenario, 97% of article 13.1 generic claims could be lost. Whole categories of claims — among them joint health, probiotics, antioxidants, botanicals and waste management — may be lost permanently.” He warned that the prohibition on claims would extend “to all commercial communications”.
“The market for food supplements is driven by claims. But we are facing a situation where, in a worst-case scenario, 97% of article 13.1 generic claims could be lost. Whole categories of claims — among them joint health, probiotics, antioxidants, botanicals and waste management — may be lost permanently.”
Peter van Doorn, chairman of the European trade association EPHM, said his organisation did not “have a problem” with the existence of a Permited List in principle. The real concern, he said, lay with the claims that had failed to make it onto the list … and the reasons why.
He commented: “Many of the unfavourable opinions are the result of failures in the procedures, namely a lack of clarity in a number of important issues. We continue to call for further evaluation regarding EFSA’s assessment criteria, which we believe are not appropriate.
Van Doorn again criticised EFSA’s “pharmaceutical approach” which he said did “not recognise the complexities of nutrition research and instead opts for the easier route of requiring conclusive cause and effect evidence”
Dr Robert Verkerk, scientific director of the campaign group ANH-Intl, warned that “with so few claims authorized, and unauthorised claims banned”, European consumers would be “thrown into an information-free void in which they will find it much harder to discriminate between healthy and less healthy foods”. He added: “Given that diet and lifestyle related diseases now represent the biggest burden on healthcare systems in the Western world, approving the existing short list of claims would be counterproductive from the perspective of health policy.
