A letter from America

Hello from Boston!

Whilst over in the US on a work trip, I visited a general food store. It was a complete eye-opener - I have never seen so many cereal bars before. I also had to go shopping for beauty foods for a colleague, not for her personally I stress, but as props for an upcoming Leatherhead Food International conference.

During my stay, I have been delighted by suggestions that dark chocolate is healthy. Over here, you can also have functional dark chocolate with green tea extracts containing antioxidants - wow what a place!

I'm over here delivering training to US companies on EU food legislation and, unsurprisingly, as with home-based companies, there is much interest in the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

One has to smile slightly at the irony of possibly publishing the Regulation at a traditional time of gluttony, or perhaps it will be in the New Year while people frantically diet and detox.

The UK Food Standards Agency has announced that it has now opened its list for food businesses to submit generic health claims, with the exception of those for disease risk reduction and targeted at children.

Claims must be submitted using a template (provided online) and must be accompanied by references to scientific justification and conditions of use.

Whilst member states are given 12 months to complete national lists of generic health claims, once the final Regulation is in force, the Agency has set a target date of nine months for food businesses to submit claims for inclusion. The Agency will publish and keep up-to-date a list of claims submitted.

It is stressed that the Agency will just check the completeness of the dossier and not assess the scientific substantiation. It also states that companies must ensure compliance with the current regulatory regime whilst the annexes are completed.

Kath Veal is international regulatory team leader at Leatherhead Food International​