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The European Parliament is considering huge restrictions on label health claims for foods and supplements

Proposed new
legislation on foods and supplements threatens informed choice

Natural Health News — Helpful product information on foods and supplements will be removed if new EU laws are adopted resulting in confusion for consumers and loss of jobs in the industry.

Next week the European Parliament will be considering a proposal for an EU-wide Regulation that will establish a list of authorised ‘general function’ health claims for food and food supplement products, under the EU’s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

The list contains 224 proposed, authorised health claims whittled down from a list of 44,000 health claims that were submitted by the various EU Member States in 2008. These claims are based on just 70 foods or food ingredients.

The only exceptions to the ban will be those claims that have not yet completed evaluation by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and the European Commission, such as those for botanical substances and probiotics.

According to the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) numerous natural ingredients used by millions of EU consumers will no longer be able to make health claims, including:

• Alpha lipoic acid, as a multi-functional antioxidant that is invaluable for pre-diabetics and diabetics or those with neuropathy (including nerve pain)
• Various forms of carnitine, widely used for cardiovascular support, especially among very active people
• Co-enzyme Q10, one of the most important supplements used in supporting cardiovascular health, and one that is depleted, and therefore particularly beneficial when taken supplementally, in those taking statin drugs
• Glucosamine and chondroitin, the two most commonly used ingredients for those looking for joint support
• Glutamine, used particularly by sportspeople for helping to increase muscle mass
• Ribonucleotides, added to infant formulae and taken by immune compromised adults to help support the immune system and support healthy gut function

Any claim to aid detoxification in the body will also be removed even though detoxification support is one of the most important elements in maintaining good health, and one that is the starting point for many naturopathic regimes.

This is, of course a disaster for consumers, but now a major Economic Impact Assessment report commissioned by the European Health Claims Alliance (EHCA) shows that the regulations will also be disastrous for industry, resulting in dramatic loss of sales, profits and ultimately jobs for the European food supplement industry.

The EHCA is an alliance of companies from across different sectors of the food and nutrition industry which are concerned about Health Claims Regulation and its impact on industry.

Its report suggests that if the regulations are adopted the industry could suffer:

• A €1 billion loss in sales at retail value across the EU
• A decrease in gross profits of €242 million
• Additional compliance costs of a further €291 million
• 13,300 job losses in the sector

If historically recognised claims disappear and consumers will have no information on a product’s purpose or appropriate use, the report argues, the viability of products will be threatened resulting in a disincentive for the industry to innovate and progress.

Food product claims that could disappear include ‘common sense’ claims such as ‘dietary fibre helps maintain a healthy digestive system’.

This particular EFSA conclusion, which goes against many established international government health policies, was reached without even looking at the substantiating evidence, due to a flawed assessment procedure whereby EFSA only investigates the evidence for a single substance (whereas ‘fibre’ is a food component consisting of a number of substances).

These frustrations of groups like ANH and EHCA are echoed in the scientific community.

A recent report from the 26th Hohenheim Consensus Conference, organised by the University of Hohenheim, an independent and renowned German academic institution in the field of nutrition research, reflects these concerns and noted that there is a need to look at “various sources of scientific data in” to better understand the relationships of diet and health.

It concluded that: “There is a need to consider the “inverse precautionary principle”: if the evidence is not absolutely conclusive but substantially indicative of the effect, then take a management decision to allow the claimed effect for the benefit of the consumer. An assessment of the evidence should contain the necessary information to make such management decisions possible.”

A European Commission committee is expected to put forward to the revised health claim regulations to the European Parliament on December 5th. If adopted all general function health claims for commercial food and food supplement products that are not authorised will be banned across all 27 EU Member States , six months after the proposal becomes law.