The claims countdown has begun

I guess not everybody will be a fan of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), but in many instances its policy of openness is to be applauded.

At the time I was writing this column the draft UK list of candidate Article 13 health claims was available on the FSA website http://www.food.gov.uk​ and the final version submitted to the Commission should be online at point of reading. The list represents a collation of the claims submitted to the FSA, which it has selected to put forward. Food ingredient and health relationships are given with supporting references, but without example claim wordings, listings of which were too great to incorporate.

This gives the first glimpse of the potential shape of the future EC claims register though the FSA stresses, rightly, that there is no guarantee that the claims contained on their list will make the final claims register.

Companies would be advised to have a scan through the table and, if their current product claims do not seem to match proposed conditions, they may wish to start thinking of their options.

One can also perhaps derive a steer on acceptable scientific substantiation, which applies via the general requirements to the use of nutrition claims and health claims. Lack of any human data could be a barrier for health claims and we need to see whether this principle will pull across to nutrition claims. It certainly looks as though companies need to really think their processes through, even those working with the softest claims.

The next stage now is a further consolidation exercise as the several thousand claims submitted across all member states are reduced to a list of potentially less than one thousand to be sent to the European Food Safety Authority for its opinion.

Expect further updates over the coming months.

Kath Veal​ is business manager, Regulatory and Technical Consultancy Services at Leatherhead Food International​