Summit shows EU health claims change not coming, says ERNA

Shane Starling met with Patrick Coppens, the secretary general of the European Responsible Nutrition Alliance (ERNA), after the European Food Safety Authority’s (EFSA) article 13.5 and 14 health claim stakeholders meeting on Monday in Brussels.

Coppens delivered a post-mortem on the event, welcoming minor clarification that came on aspects of the regulation but remaining guarded about EFSA’s scientific criteria, which “remains a stumbling block to innovation”.

“We have no indication from this meeting that EFSA will change its approach,” Coppens said.

He was disappointed generic article 13.1 claims were not discussed and called for a meeting on the subject before the end of July, when the first batch of about 1000 claims is due to be published.