A botanical first?
For EAS Strategies’ global managing director Simon Pettman the most significant EU health claim happening of the year related to EFSA's positive opinion for hydroxyanthracene derivates and bowel function.
The opinion for a botanical food supplement containing a number of plant preparations was approved back in 2013, but EU-level discussions are ongoing meaning it was yet to pass into food law.
This year marked two years of failure to find a solution.
The claim was lauded as the first botanical claim to get a positive opinion but in fact it referred to one compound contained in these plants.
The same evidence saw the European Medicines Agency (EMA) accept it as a medicinal product with well-established use, but opinions across EU member states differed on how the compound should be treated.
“Should the claim be accepted for food supplements, knowing it has been approved for medicinal products? Or should the claim be rejected and if so on what basis? Because the use is not safe? Because the plants should be medicinal? For us it is clear that this situation is a direct consequence of the direction the nutrition and health claims Regulation has taken,” Pettman said.
“If this claim is not accepted, it would set a clear precedent that might put into jeopardy numerous innovations in the functional ingredient area that are in the pipeline today.”
Luca Bucchini also highlighted this issue, saying at a Commission level, next year may bring to an end ongoing issues such as hydroxyanthracenes and caffeine.
If the hydroxyanthracenes claim was not confirmed it would cast further doubts about the viability of the NCHR scheme for botanicals, he said.
