The upcoming EU Regulations on Claims and Labelling View of the European Dairy Industry

1
The upcoming EU Regulations on Claims and
Labelling- View of the European Dairy Industry -

• EDA position on Nutrition and Health Claims,
  Nutrient Profiles and Nutrition Labelling

World Dairy Forum, Prague 2007
2

Nutrient Profiles and Health Claims

• EDA Nutrition Working Group
• Theo Ockhuizen, PhD, chairman
• Mareike Preller, EDA Secretariat

3
Food Nutrition Pyramid
EDA position

• Main task

• Coordination

• Evaluation

4
Public and political concern on nutrition and
health

• Growing prevalence of obesity, diabetes, cancer
  and other lifestyle-related chronic diseases.
• Growing concern about consumer protection
  regarding the misuse of nutrition and health
  claims in the EU internal market as no harmonised
  rules exist.
• Growing recognition that the principle of no
  good or bad foods is loosing credibility.
• Consumption of foods with undesirable nutrient
  profiles should not be encouraged.
• Foods with a claim but an undesired nutrient
  profile could have a negative impact on dietary
  intake and should not be allowed to bear claims.

5
EU Regulation 1924/2006
6
Claims in Regulation 1924/2006
what it does
Health Claims
Function claims
Reduction of disease risk claims and claims
referring to childrens development and health
Based on generally accepted scientific data
Based on newly developed scientific data
calcium is good for bones
"calcium can lower the risk of osteoporosis
rich in calcium
7
Article 13 list of Health Claims

• Status
• EU Member States are currently establishing
  national Article 13 lists of health claims to be
  send to the EU Commission by January 2008.
• EDA has prepared Article 13 list of 28
  scientifically substantiated health claims.
• EDA Messages
• EDA Article 13 list contains claims on vitamins,
  minerals and other substances contained in milk
  and dairy products, dairy foods and dairy as a
  whole.
• Claims are necessary to communicate the health
  benefits of dairy products to the consumer.
• Include EDA health claims into national and
  subsequently into EU Community list of Article 13
  health claims.

8
Examples of dairy claims (Art. 13)
9
Nutrient profiles as condition for claims
Health Claims
Nutrition Claims
Reduction of disease risk claims and claims
referring to childrens development and health
Health claims other than those referring to the
reduction of disease risk
Nutrient Profiles (Art. 4)
Restrictions on the use of certain health claims
(Art. 12)
based on generally accepted scientific data
based on newly developed scientific data and/or
which include a request for the protection of
proprietary data
Community list of permitted claims (Annex)
Community list of permitted claims (Art. 13)
Authorization procedure through EFSA

COMMUNITY REGISTER
10
Nutrient profiles rationale

• Nutrient profiling is the science of categorising
  foods by their nutrient composition.
• Nutrient profile-based definitions are used as a
  tool to categorise different foods
• Nutrient profiling will be based on the
  quantities of certain nutrients and other
  substances contained in the food, such as fat,
  saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, sugars
  and salt/sodium.
• The role and the importance of the food (or of
  categories of food) and the contribution to the
  diet of the population or, as appropriate, of
  certain risk groups incl. children.
• The overall nutritional composition of the food
  and the presence of nutrients that have been
  scientifically recognized as having an effect on
  health.

11
The place for dairy

• Dairy fits into a healthy diet.
• Positive contribution to nutrient intake.
• High nutrient density.
• Many suggested health benefits beyond pure
  nutritional value.
• Broad composational variation and different
  physiological properties.
• The dairy sector must stay alert to protect dairy
  interests.

12
EDA position on nutrient profilesGeneral
principles

• Solely for the purpose of making claims.
• Based on scientific evidence.
• Clear, transparent and easy to implement.
• Allow and provide an incentive for innovation.

13
EDA position on nutrient profiles Dairy items
Total fat
SAFA
TFA
Cholesterol

• Relevance could be assessed
• based on scientific evidence from clinical
  studies
• with the help of scientific contributions for
  health claims
• from the nutritional contribution of dairy to the
  total diet
• from the position of dairy products in the total
  diet

Sodium

• Separate category with subdivision into 3
  groups
• milk and milk products
• cheese
• butter and cream

Added sugar
100 g/100 ml
Non-milk sugar
Threshold
Across the board
Disqual. ingredients
Energy
Testing / validation
100 kcal/kJ
Vit A
Scoring
Food category
Qualifying ingredients
Vit C
Reference amount
iron

• Consider positive nutrients nutrient density
• No consideration of ruminant TFA
• No consideration of intrinsic sugar lactose

protein
calcium
fiber
W-3 LC PUFA
Fruits vegs
folate
14
Nutrient profiles politics rather than science

• The introduction of nutrient profiles was a
  political decision at the start and will be at
  the end of the procedure.
• It is an emotional decision provoked by pressure
  from consumer organizations.
• The emphasis on nutrients rather than on healthy
  dietary patterns could lead to unbalanced dietary
  patterns.

15

Thank you for your attention

• Theo Ockhuizen
• EDA Nutrition Working Group
• ockhuizen_at_wxs.nl

16

Issues of the Claims Regulation and Revision of
Labelling Legislation

• EDA Claims and Labelling Group
• Eric Grande, PhD, chairman
• Mareike Preller, EDA Secretariat

17
Claims Regulation 1924/2006

• Status
• - applies from 1 July 2007, meaning that claims
  made on the packaging, in commercial
  communications (TV ad, radio, leaflet,) to the
  final consumer have to comply with the rules in
  the Regulation
• Due to its WIDE scope, various activities are
  on-going to bring forward the implementation of
  the Regulation

18
Claims Regulation 1924/2006

• Interpretation Issues
• - Comparative claims (i.e. linked to nutrition
  claims)
• - Borderline claims Art 13 vs. Art 14, i.e.
  function claims vs. Disease risk reduction
  claims
• - Definition of children vs. babies, infants,
  teenagers, young adults
• - Transition periods and coexistence of national
  and EU rules
• - Nutrition claims annex

19
Actions 2008 Regulation 1924/2006
Health Claims
Nutrition Claims
Reduction of disease risk claims and claims
referring to childrens development and health
Health claims other than those referring to the
reduction of disease risk
Nutrient Profiles (Art. 4)
Restrictions on the use of certain health claims
(Art. 12)
based on generally accepted scientific data
based on newly developed scientific data and/or
which include a request for the protection of
proprietary data
Authorization procedure through EFSA

Community list of permitted claims (Annex)
Community list of permitted claims (Art. 13)
COMMUNITY REGISTER
MS list by Jan 2008, evaluation by EFSA, final
list Jan 2010
EFSA opinion Jan 2008, final system Jan 2009
Proposed amendments
20
EDA Tasks in relation to Regulation 1924/2006

• Work on interpretation issues relevant for the
  dairy sector
• Setting of reasonable nutrient profiles for dairy
  products
• Establishment and defense of specific health
  claims for the dairy sector
• Update of the Nutrition Claims Annex for dairy
  relevant items

21
Nutrition Labelling Revision

• Status
• EU Commission is currently revising the EU
  Directives on general food labelling and
  nutrition labelling
• Legislation proposal expected in December 2007

• EDA Messages
• voluntary nutritional labelling is the right
  approach
• If mandatory nutrition labelling is applied, it
  should be restricted to the basic nutrition
  information (energy, protein, fat and
  carbohydrates)

22
EDA position on trans fatty acids

• Science
• - Low habitual intake of ruminant TFA with
  average European diet.
• - Minimal contribution of ruminant TFA to energy
  intake.
• - No scientific evidence of negative effects of
  ruminant TFA.

Ruminant TFA do not need to be considered for
labelling purposes !

• Labelling
• - Labelling of TFA will produce a negative image
  for dairy products.
• - Will confuse consumers.
• - Might lead to unintended (negative)
  consequences on public health, e.g. reduction of
  nutrient intake from dairy.
• - Will place dairy foods at unnecessary marketing
  disadvantage.

23
GDAs and Signposting

• EDA Messages
• - any other type of information and
  communication to consumers should be voluntary
  and left to the responsibility of food operators
• - detailed nutrition information (e.g. GDA)
  could be given in addition to the basic one but
  not as an alternative mean

- Signposting (e.g. traffic light) might
rather lead to consumer confusion. It should
remain voluntary and within the responsibility of
the food operator.
24

Thank you for your attention

• Eric Grande
• EDA Claims and Labelling Working Group
• eric.grande_at_lactalis.fr