With just 20% of more than 2500 health claim applications approved, voices are rising to halt a despised, claim-curtailing process before it does any further damage to the European food and supplements industries.
But one of Europe and the world’s largest ingredient suppliers, the Beneo Group, says stalling now will benefit no one. Even though the list is deeply flawed, it is time to move forward and make law what has for so long been ambiguous, the company’s vice president of regulatory affairs and nutrition communication, Anke Sentko, told NutraIngredients at Food Ingredients Europe in Paris last week.
“For more than two years now we monitored that innovation power is going down…you have no progress – you have no real future,” Sentko reasoned. “This is what we need to stop. We need to go ahead – we need to have a new future now.”
“New research may come as well. It is now much more clear what EFSA is expecting. The guidelines are there so you know what to measure. You can at least work with new article 13.5 claims and go ahead with that.”