Regulation (Ec) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods specifies in article 13 that health claims describing or referring to:
- the role of a nutrient or other substance in growth, development and the functions of the body; or
- psychological and behavioural functions; or
- without prejudice to Directive 96/8/EC, slimming or weightcontrol or a reduction in the sense of hunger or an increase in the sense of satiety or to the reduction of the available energy from the diet, which are indicated in the list provided for in paragraph 3 may be made without undergoing the procedures laid down in Articles 15 to 19, if they are:
- based on generally accepted scientific evidence; and
- well understood by the average consumer.
Member States are expected to provide the Commission with lists of such claims by 31 January 2008 at the latest accompanied by the conditions applying to them and by references to the relevant scientific justification.
Given the importance of such claims for the European food manufacturers, CIAA (The Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries in the EU), EHPM (The European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers), ERNA (The European Responsible Nutrition Alliance) and EBF (The European Botanical Forum) joined forces to collect claims that are currently used in conformity with national provisions in the European Member States and validate their conformity with the criteria from the Regulation.
This works was started in 2006 and was finalised on 29 October 2007.
Claims have been collected from the member companies of the associations according to a methodology that was developed by Prof. D. Richardson (Richardson DP, Binns NM, Viner P. Guidelines for an evidence-based review system for the scientific justification of diet and health relationships under Article 13 of the new European legislation on nutrition and health claims. Food Science and Technology Bulletin 2007 3: 83-97). All claims have been assessed by a group of independent specialist in the field of nutrition and health and claims that were judged to be sufficiently substantiated have been included in the industry list of claims.
The final list, list of references and accompanying documents can be found here:
- The final codified version of the list, including 776 claims
- The explicatory cover note
- The accompanying note to the conditions of use to go with the codified list
- A codified version of the references, part 1 (vitamins, minerals, macro-nutrients, dietary fibers, probiotics, foods and beverages and diets)
- A codified version of the references, part 2 (other substances)
- A codified version of the references, part 3 (botanicals)
These documents were submitted to the national authorities of the Member States for submission to the European Commission before 31 January 2008.