Health claims – what next?

Permitted claims for food supplements under Europe’s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR) have barely managed a trickle with just 229 approved out of more than 2100 submissions.

The blockage that allowed a mere 11% pass rate appears to be an ‘inappropriate pharmaceutical assessment model to claims on food’, according to Consumers for Health Choice (CHC).

The European Food Safety Agency (EFSA) is responsible for those assessments and what they decide is rigorously applied in the UK by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) and overstretched Trading Standards Officers.