Nutrition body unveils EU health claim guide

A best-practice guide to preparing EU health claims, aimed primarily at small and medium-sized enterprises, has been developed by the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) in conjunction with the EU-funded Bacchus project.

Presented in two parts, the Best Practice Guide for Health Claims provides information on the European Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims, as well as other relevant regulations.

It also offers specific insights into the areas relevant to the Bacchus project health claims related to polyphenols, bioactive peptides and cardiovascular health.

Official regulation focus

The guide focuses on official regulations and guidance documents from the European Commission (EC) and the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), as well as looking at the outcomes of assessments of relevant claims applications by EFSA and subsequent approval or rejection by the EC.

It contains a health claims template that outlines the information needed for a dossier, which is intended to provide a first step in collating the information required to prepare a health claims dossier.

‘Will be a useful resource’

“It is hoped that the guide will be a useful resource for those hoping to gain approval for a health claim on a product, for those in food and nutrition research, and for others with an interest in this field,” said Dr Stacey Lockyer, nutrition scientist at the BNF.

The Baccus project aims to develop tools that help generate robust and exploitable scientific evidence, which can be used to support claims of a cause and effect relationship between bioactive peptides and polyphenols, and beneficial physiological effects related to cardiovascular health.