The Impact of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation on the Food Industry

The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation was published on 19 January 2007 and will come into effect on 1 July 2007. It is the result of years of discussion and negotiations between the EU institutions. But the final text contains many unclarities and inconsistencies and Member States are only now starting to investigate the meaning of the different provisions. The text is very prescriptive and only allows claims after they have been approved and put on a list prior to marketing. It contains various procedures depending on the type of the claim, but the main requirements on how claims will be assessed by the European Food Safety Authority and the criteria that will underpin decisions taken by the European Commission are lacking. The impact of the text on industry will depend largely on the way in which the Regulation will be interpreted, applied and enforced, i.e. how many claims will ultimately be allowed on the list and how easy access to and approval through the procedures will be. This paper illustrates some of the difficulties that food businesses experience with the application of the Regulation and provides a general impression of the consequences it has for food businesses.