BRUSSELS, Belgium—The European Health Claims Alliance (EHCA) is coordinating a campaign urging companies to jointly appeal to José Manuel Barroso, president of the European Commission (EC), to halt the current process used to adopt functional health claims under Article 13.1 of the Nutrition and Health Claims regulation. More than 350 European companies in the food and nutrition industry have signed on to an online letter requesting Barroso stop the adoption of the list of “positive” functional health claims in batches.
In a release, EHCA claimed the approach distorts market competition, creates unnecessary and disproportionate costs for manufacturers, and creates market confusion across various EU markets with different harmonized or non-harmonized claims on products.
Philip Chapelle, director of research and development, Arkopharma, and a signatory to the letter, was quoted in the release: “The Regulation did not provide for the adoption of these health claims in batches, in fact it specifically envisaged one consolidated community list, and our immediate concern is that this piecemeal approach would severely distort competition. It is neither acceptable, nor proportionate, as it creates significant and unnecessary costs for manufacturers in an already difficult economic environment.”
Article 13 provides for the approval of generic health claims based on generally accepted scientific evidence, following the consultation of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). If accepted, the claims are to be included in a positive EC list of claims permitted for use in the labeling and advertising of foods in the EU. While the EC list was originally scheduled to be released in January 2010, EFSA instead has published its opinions on the 4,500 proposed claims in batches. So far, opinions have been released on 939 claims in two batches (October 2009 and February 2010); another batch of around 600 opinions is expected in July 2010.
