The European Commission released an update on an evaluation of issues on nutrition and health claims regulations.
Australian Food News reported that the evaluation considers two specific areas of EU's regulatory system: health claims on plants and their preparations added to food, and nutrient profiles. Both areas form part of the Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 (the EU Regulation) which governs nutrition and health claims throughout the European Union.
"The EU Regulation is similar to Australian legal requirements for health and nutrition content claims set out in Standard 1.2.7 of the Australia New Zealand Food Standards Code (the Food Standards Code)," AFN wrote on its website. "The EU Regulation was introduced in 2006 in a bid to harmonize the claims system for food products throughout the EU, in order to protect consumers, prevent misleading information and ensure a level playing field for businesses."
The EU regulation obligated the EC to set "nutrient profiles." These nutrient profiles would specify maximum levels in foods of nutrients such as salt, sugar and fat. It would be prohibited from making health claims if a food product contains levels above the maximums and limited in what nutrition claims could be made.
It is said that the purpose of the nutrition profiles is to prevent consumers from being misled about the overall nutritional quality of a food. It seeks to consider the following concerns on nutrition profiles: 1) The effect of the postponement in presenting the nutrient profiles which include nutrition and health claims, other health initiatives and the trade of food; 2) Options to introducing nutrient profiles; 3) Whether updates are needed to the nutrient profiles scheme to account for regulatory changes since 2006, including the new EU Regulation of Food Information to Consumers; and 4) Member States' approaches to make up for the lack of EU level nutrient profiles.
The second key area deliberated in the evaluation comes from a dearth of EU-wide coordination on legislation concerning plants and their preparations used in foods. The evaluation aims to consider the following subjects regarding plants and their preparations: 1) How well the objectives of 2006 Regulation are being met; 2) How relevant is the 2006 framework to current needs, trends and market evolution; 3) Costs of authorization procedures for small and medium size enterprises; 4) Alternatives to the current provisions; 5) How coherent is the 2006 Regulation to other EU legislation on plants and their preparations (including use with traditional herbal medicinal products); 6) The merits and disadvantages of the current governance; and 7) The merits and disadvantages if the introduction of list of plants and their preparations.
External study will occur in first half of 2016, followed by an open public consultation intended in second half of 2016 and a stakeholder's consultation also towards second half of 2016. The evaluation is planned to inaugurate in January 2016 and be completed by June 2017.