Nutraveris: Rejected soy claim highlights EFSA hard line

French health claims consultancy Nutraveris says the European Food Safety Authority was right in rejecting a soy protein-cholesterol health claim recently, because the supporting evidence was not specific enough.

Nutraveris head of health claim and food safety, Thomas Pauquai, PhD, said the fact other agencies such as the US Food and Drug Administration had approved similar claims meant little as EFSA was employing tighter criteria between nutrients and health benefits.

“While the efficacy of soy product is strongly supported, no high quality studies presented in this file support the efficacy of the protein component of soy per se,” Pauquai said.

“This is just a new illustration, if it was yet needed, that it is very difficult to get a strong enough dossier to convince EFSA … which seems to be far more rigorous than other authorities.”