Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) have voted to veto four caffeine health claims following a lively debate on energy drinks in a Strasbourg plenary today.
The European Commission has started the first phase of its investigation into the need for nutrient profiles, with a report expected in spring 2017. Yet with the caffeine claim fiasco ongoing, it’s never been clearer how necessary the profiles are.
Italy could ban high-dose vitamin and mineral supplements after a nutrition committee recommended vitamin B12 (cobalamin) above 500 micrograms (ug) was medicinal.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is pushing forward with a vitamin D opinion after a social media campaign saw an “avalanche” of comments flooded in as part of a public consultation.
The European Commission has mused three different solutions to the botanical extracts situation that has seen about 2000 claims stuck on hold. Yet real movement will not be seen in the immediate future, a DG SANTE head has said.
The European Commission has started the first phase of its investigation into the need for nutrient profiles, which it hopes will settle the issue once and for all.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has adopted a draft opinion on the energy conversion factor for 'functional sweetener' D-tagatose, meaning its calorie count can be listed on product labels.
It is EFSA and the EU nutrition health claims regulation (NHCR) that is today the biggest barrier to European innovation in nutrition and Brexit, whatever else it may do, can remove some of those innovation brakes.
The European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) will build links with remaining EU member states in the wake of the UK’s shock decision to leave the bloc, but its London HQ is in jeopardy.
Rising food prices, watered-down safety standards, food law dictated by big businesses and a disastrous impact on public health. Professor in food policy Tim Lang looks at the options of a post-Brexit UK but sees little light at the end of the channel...
The first signs of Brexit’s short-term impact on the UK economy were highlighted in a survey from the Institute of Directors (IoD), which revealed nearly two-thirds (64%) of IoD members thought that quitting the EU would be negative for their business.
For the first time the European Union has lost a member after the British people yesterday voted to leave the bloc which began life as the European Economic Community in 1951.
A European Union legal expert says last week’s UK Court of Appeal verdict that demanded the medicines regulator there re-examine the status of glucosamine, especially high-dose glucosamine, could provoke change in the sector across the EU.
As Britons prepare to vote tomorrow on whether the UK should leave the European Union, industry players are making last minute pleas to either stay or leave.
SPECIAL EDITION: ANTIOXIDANTS, POLYPHENOLS & CAROTENOIDS
European regulatory restraints have killed off antioxidant health claims as lawyers advise firms to play it safe despite leniency in some EU member states. We round up the legal status of the term, and the impact this has had on the market.
Japanese firm Glico Nutrition has won the approval of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for its calcium derived from potato starch, which is already used in functional chewing gum in Asia.
ANH: UK Court gives MHRA 'firm rap across the knuckles'
The UK Court of Appeal has ruled that glucosamine products above 1500 mg can be sold as food supplements, but has urged the UK medicines agency to look at the matter.
The European Commission’s report on sports nutrition is a welcome ‘milestone’ which puts an end to more than a decade of regulatory uncertainty, the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA) has said.
Sports food belongs under general food law not the upcoming Food for Specific Groups (FSG) regulation, the European Commission has concluded in a report that will leave industry opinion divided.
The Czech Republic has banned melatonin as a food supplement ingredient as part of a decree laying out prohibitions and restrictions for over 100 substances.
For the second time in 13 months Juice Garden has been pulled up by the UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for making unauthorised health claims.
The European Parliament’s Environment and Public Health Committee (ENVI) has adopted a last-minute motion that could see four controversial caffeine claims vetoed in a move the energy drink sector warns could result in yet more years of "legal uncertainty”.
The UK’s Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has warned a Facebook user not to repost claims that a Multi-Maca supplement could up sperm count for men and enhance fertility for women.
Following reports that the Dutch and Belgian governments are to increase distribution of iodine pills as a nuclear safety precaution, a leading iodine expert warns of the dangers of self-medication in populations who aren’t at immediate risk.
Malnutrition is on the rise in every country in the world, driven by the double-pronged health threat of obesity and starvation, a report has concluded.
A European Parliament motion to veto the Commission’s approval of four caffeine health claims could prove the final stumbling block on their long road to EU law books.
After retiring last February as head of the European Commission’s DG SANTE food legislation unit, Basil Mathioudakis is spreading the world globally about the merits of the EU’s food and nutrition regulation as a consultant to industry and governments.
From 20th June, manufacturers will be able to claim a “lower blood glucose rise” when using non-digestible carbohydrates as sugar replacers, following the publication of a new article 13.5 claim in the EU Official Journal.
The International Criminal Police Organisation (INTERPOL) has seized 12.2 million products as part of its 103-country Operation Pangea IX to crack down on the black health market.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) will provide its first ‘explicit definition’ of nutrient bioavailability as part of an overhaul of guidance from its predecessor the Scientific Committee on Food (SCF) dating back to 2001.
'Local authorities determined the package contained a small amount of potentially explosive material'
Most respondents (60%) in a ‘state-of-the-industry’ survey, conducted by this website, fear a vote to leave the EU on June 23 will be bad for their businesses, increasing the costs of imported ingredients, while hitting exports and access to labour from...
A report from the National Obesity Forum (NOF) in association with Public Health Collaboration has come under flak from Public Health England (PHE), Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and the British Nutrition Foundation (BNF) for providing bad nutritional...
A new approach claims to better determine optimal micronutrient levels for different groups of consumers, opening up the possibility for personalising nutrition in the future.
Dextro: Claims could have been authorised with conditions of use
German firm Dextro Energy has taken the fight to use five EFSA-approved – but EC-rejected – glucose-based sports nutrition claims to the EU’s highest court.
Germany has formally adopted a proposal for a legally binding definition of vegan and vegetarian food - but will it spur the Commission into finally drawing up an EU-wide definition or will it be another barrier to trade for EU manufacturers?
An EFSA re-evaluation of the safety data for sucrose acetate isobutyrate (E 444) as a food additive has doubled the acceptable daily intake limit (ADI).
In the wake of the European Parliament's no vote last month, the Czech Republic has drawn up a draft decree to apply nutrient profiles on food sold and advertised in schools and ban foods that exceed maximum levels for sugar, salt and fat.
The link between polydextrose consumption and maintenance or normal defecation is ‘weak’, EFSA has found in rejecting an article 13.5 submission from agrifood sugar giant Tate & Lyle.
As new nutrition guidelines make labelling potassium on packaged foods mandatory in the US, a UK petition is urging the government to do the same but for different reasons - it would end the processed food "nightmare" for sufferers of Chronic...
The UK Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has highlighted the mega-trend platform shift in marketing activity toward online with the watchdog investigating 8633 cases on the web, compared to 3920 on television in 2015.
In April this year the Global Organisation for EPA and DHA Omega-3s (GOED) published its first recommendation for EPA and DHA, as an attempt to wade in and bring unity to divergent nutrition advice.
With around 20-25% of global wild caught fish used for fish meal and fish oil production, environmental certification schemes like Friend of the Sea (FoS) and the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC) have been putting increasing pressure on the omega-3 sector...
Food supplements are often presented as a 'softer' alternative to health than pharmaceutical treatments. Yet Omega Pharma experienced first-hand the dangers of trying to normalise a medical taboo when its advertisement for a night time urination botanical...
The complementary medicines industry has hit out at the decision by Australia’s state broadcaster to air what it calls a “sensationalised story” about the safety of some American supplements.
A new report says countries’ efforts to support breastfeeding in the face of infant formula promotion aren’t effective enough, but industry says it is playing by complicated and changing rules.
