EFSA CLA rejection stalls business development

Lipid Nutrition global group manager in marketing, John Kurstjens, is “a little bit disappointed” about the recent EFSA health claim opinion on CLA which included a range of claim dismissals but remained strangely silent about the claim that matters most to CLA players – body fat reduction.

‘We don’t know the reason for that,” Kurstjens said of the rejected article 13.1 dossier that proposed body weight, body mass, insulin sensitivity, antioxidant and immunity claims.

“Certainly it has some effect on our business. Companies are really waiting to start up projects to develop new products for the market and waiting for the positive opinion of the EFSA. But still there are a lot of opportunities to use claims for CLA in the market.”

As with the other major player in the conjugated linoleic acid sector, Cognis, Lipid Nutrition is preparing an article 13.5 submission that will focus purely on body fat reduction it hopes to deliver to EFSA’s Parma, Italy base by year’s end.

“By mid-2011 we expect a positive opinion about it.”

EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) CLA opinion can be found here.

NutraIngredients health claims 2010

These matters and more will be discussed at the second NutraIngredients Health Claims 2010 conference to be held in Brussels on December 1. The conference will deconstruct the latest article 13.1 claim opinions, hear first-hand experience from players like Kellogg’s, outline regulation-coping marketing strategies, and feature comparison with the US claims system from leading industry figure, Dr Andrew Shao.