Leslie van der Meulen from Aurora Algae takes over as secretary with Ocean Nutrition Canada’s Robert Orr, a former chairman, continuing as treasurer.
The new board comprises 16 members and follows a previous expansion in June last year from eight to 14 members as the group evolves to deal with an expanding membership that has grown to more than 100 companies and organisations since its 2006 formation.
The other 12 members of the new board are:
David Shannon, Croda
Gerard Bannenberg, Solutex
Cynthia Crouch, DuPont
Hans de Wit, Marvesa
Philip Fass, Martek Biosciences
Al Gallegos, Solae
Dr. Carol Locke, OmegaBrite
Arunas Paliulis, FINA
Dr. Harald Ronneberg
Frode Remmereit, Napro Pharma
Olav Sandnes, Marine Nutriceutical
Federico Tripodi, Monsanto
Lobbying
GOED has been active in lobbying in the EU over brain claims that are under consideration for DHA (docosahexaenoic acid) and ALA (alpha linoleic acid).
It submitted a letter to the European Commission on the matter where it highlighted European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) findings that ALA is only valuable physiologically as a pre-cursor to DHA.
The group feared that the meeting would see a claim for 0-18 years for ALA (alpha linoleic acid), but only 0-12 months for DHA (docosahexaenoic acid).
“EFSA has specifically given the Commission a letter and presentation stating that in their opinion the ALA effect is only due to conversion to DHA and therefore any ALA claim should also apply to DHA,” said GOED executive director, Adam Ismail.
“Health claims are supposed to reflect the best scientific advice available, and while the Member States are under no obligation to follow EFSA’s advice, it would be the first time they have ignored EFSA under the health claims regulations.”