By all accounts, the new European proposals on nutrition and health claims have provoked a mixed reaction across the board. Raymond O'Rourke, a food lawyer at Mason Hayes & Curran, Solicitors in Dublin shares his opinion of the issue with us.
"I commend Commissioner Byrne for publishing a proposed regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods. Many before him have 'ducked' this issue as not being necessary to legislate at EU level, but as consumers have become increasingly concerned about what they eat they have been bombarded by unsubstantiated nutritional claims on foodstuffs," said O'Rourke.
"This new regulation will provide much needed consistency to the use of such claims by food manufacturers and is to be welcomed," he added.
The regulation sets out to harmonise the use of nutrition claims such as 'high fibre' and 'low fat' and health claims such as 'High in protein. Protein helps build and repair body tissues'. Only health claims that can be substantiated scientifically and have been evaluated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will be permitted. But here O'Rourke has some doubts.
"Although the conditions for use of numerous nutritional claims such as 'Low fat' and 'High fibre' have been defined in the proposal I would be concerned by situations where foodstuffs may adhere to the conditions for 'Low Fat' but contain high quantities of sugar or salt," he commented.
Consumers may therefore purchase products that bear a nutritional claim for 'Low Fat' believing that the total food product is nutritious when in actual fact it may not be so. "In order not to mislead consumers I would suggest that nutritional claims should only be permitted if the overall content of the foodstuff is nutritious," he affirmed.
Moving on, O'Rourke highlights the need to tighten up the rules on advertising, suggesting a similar system to that already in place in the US. "On the question both of nutritional & health claims the actual logos and images used to state or imply a claim and product endorsements by sportsmen for example all play an important role in the way claims are perceived and understood by the final consumer.
"In the United States the validity of food advertising campaigns are monitored by the Federal Trade Commission and I believe that a similar situation should prevail at EU-level, possibly with the EFSA being permitted to monitor and comment upon particular cases where advertising misleads rather than informs the consumer."