Food claims directives will help not hinder, according to EC

EUROPE – David Byrne, the European commissioner for health and consumer protection, has hit back at critics of the EC’s proposal for regulations on nutrition and health claims made on foods.

He made the speech at an EEP hearing in response to media reports on the subject, which he claimed painted a “wildly false picture of what the proposal aims to do”.

Byrne insisted that the proposal did not represent a radical departure for the food industry, but that it simply harmonised the diverse rules that currently exist for such claims across the member states.

He also went on to define exactly what the proposal is set out to do, something which he claimed had been distorted in the press.

Nutrition claims such as ‘rich in vitamin C’ would be subject to definition and result in thresholds being set for such claims. Health claims that implied a benefit to consumers would also be scrutinised, with a list of permitted claims to be drawn up within three years of the regulation’s introduction. More novel claims would require scientific justification and pre-marketing approval before they could be used.