Pathway 27 is a five-year multi-partner consortium project initiated in 2013 and funded by the EU. It is involved with establishing the interactive roles of key nutrients within the food matrix in Bioactive Enriched Foods (BEFs) and their impact on clinical endpoints of Metabolic Syndrome.
The establishment of comprehensive guidelines to help companies plan dietary interventions and submit health claims to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for bioactive took a big step forward last week.
A key goal of the project has been to develop two sets of guidelines containing clear step-by-step processes and best practices to enable small to medium-size enterprises (SMEs) to develop BEFs and facilitate the submission of health claims for these products to EFSA.
Last week in Brussels, members from the 25-partner consortium held interactive workshops to discuss drafts these two sets of guidelines.
The first workshop addressed integrated guidelines for the European scientific community. Participants from both the academic and industry sectors were invited to comment on the draft document, which when finalised, will provide comprehensive guidance in planning human dietary intervention studies.
Topics included study design, defining test and control products, study outcome measures, selection of participants, ethical approval/ study registration, data collection, compliance, statistical analysis and reporting of trials.
The second day saw a more industry orientated discussion focusing on guidelines for SMEs developing products with health claims.
Again, a wide range of consortium members offered suggestions on key issues including stages of the product development procedure, considerations related to the selection and verification of health claims and the development of health dossier submissions to EFSA.
Workshop feedback will be incorporated into the final guidelines later this year, while the project is due for completion in January 2018.