Sunday 5 July 2009

UK list of health claims

UK candidate list of health claims (Article 13).

In October 2006 the Agency invited industry to submit health claims (under Article 13 of the EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation) to a draft UK list. This list closed on 21 September to allow the Agency to screen submissions for eligibility.

The tables below make up the final version of the UK list of candidate Article 13 health claims which was submitted to the European Commission on 30 January 2008. In compiling the list the Agency sought to combine duplicate claims and ensure their eligibility under the scope of Article 13 (1). Submitters were informed of ineligible claims and had an opportunity to comment during the finalisation of the list.

The Regulation requires that claims must be supported by references to generally accepted scientific evidence and the European Food Safety Authority will assess this. The Agency did not, therefore, look into the references in detail. However, we were unable to consider non-English language references and non-published references for the UK list; and we have highlighted where it was not obvious that a claim was supported by references to human studies.

Claims are collected into five separate tables:

Table 1 – Carbohydrates, Diets, Fats, Fibre, and Foods and Beverages
Table 2 – Minerals and other
Table 3 – Probiotic Ingredients, Protein, and Vitamins
Table 4 – Plant substances with no known medicinal use in the UK
Table 5 – Plant substances also with medicinal use in the UK

and are in an alphabetical order for the category, food or food component. Submitters' details do not appear in the table.

Please note that the tables do not include any example wordings. The Agency received multiple entries in this column and it is not possible to include them all in this table. However, all example wordings received were included against the appropriate claim in the list submitted to the EU Commission for consideration during the consolidation of every Member States’ lists into the Community list of Article 13 health claims.

EU process

The claims listed in the table of health claims below do not represent claims that are in any way endorsed or approved by the Food Standards Agency.

Until adoption of the Community list, businesses must ensure that they comply with current legislation. Claims on this list are not guaranteed a place on the final Community list of permitted claims.

Background

Article 13 of the EU Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods (1924/2006) requires EU Member States’ competent authorities (in the UK this is the Food Standards Agency) to submit a list of draft health claims to the EU Commission. This draft list will include claims (submitted to the Agency by industry) that are eligible for consideration to be on the final Community list of permitted claims. The European Food Safety Authority will assess submissions from all Member States and the EU will produce a final list of permitted health claims.

Claims eligible for consideration are:

those describing or referring to the role of a nutrient or other substance in growth, development and the functions of the body
psychological and behavioural functions
slimming, weight control, a reduction in the sense of hunger, an increase in the sense of satiety and the reduction of the available energy from the diet

Health claims of any other nature are not eligible for this list.

To qualify for the EU list, these claims must also be based on generally accepted scientific evidence and be well understood by the consumer. The Agency invited submissions to the UK list of health claims in October 2006 and below is a link to information about that process. The Agency closed this list to submissions on 21 September 2007. Industry representative organisations and the EU institutions had agreed a format for provision of these claims and the UK invited claims by way of a template consistent with this format.

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UK list of health claims

EU process

Background

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