The UK Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has reappointed members to its Herbal Medicines Advisory Committee (HMAC) that advises on matters including the EU Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD).
The World Health Organization (WHO) has granted the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) NGO status after it disbanded an alliance with food and pharma firms including Coca-Cola, Cargill and GlaxoSmithKline.
“I get personal because they [EFSA] get personal to me"
Veteran probiotic researcher professor Gregor Reid is not a happy man. It’s time the probiotic community fought back against those forces that have for too long denied a perfectly valid body of nutrition science in the form of commercial claims. It’s...
EFSAs rebuttal of claims that a recent positive scientific opinion should have related to a whole product rather than a single constituent reaffirm the belief that product-specific health claims are not viable, according to one consultant.
The ASEAN Food and Beverage Alliance (AFBA) is calling for the same food labelling across all of south east Asia because it is critical to help the industry expand.
The European sports nutrition sector is joining with authorities like the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) to wipe out an illicit trade in the dangerous fat burning, fertiliser chemical DNP (2,4-Dinitrophenol) that has been linked to more than 60 deaths...
The EU’s central science agency has proposed an adequate intake (AI) level of 150 micrograms (µg) for adults in a draft opinion published today and open to public consultation.
EFSA is an irrational scientific bully that is damaging the European nutrition sector and driving activity to more business-friendly regions like Asia and the US, says the chief a Maltese firm just rejected by the agency for a second time.
Athletics Australia (AA) is wrong to warn its young and elite athletes off food and sports supplements as they can provide benefits at next-to-no risk, Europe’s sports nutrition sector has said.
The European Food Safety Authority has approved a raft of claims for under-3s including iodine and thyroid and cognitive function; vitamin C and iron absorption; and iron and haemoglobin formation.
According to Australia’s Complementary Healthcare Council, 2014 will put an ever-increasing burden of chronic health problems on the country’s healthcare system. As a result, the body is urging the government increase prominence for complementary medicines...
The three giants of chicory-derived inulin and fructo-oligosaccharides (FOS) supply have won a significant European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claim approval linking non-digestible carbohydrates and improved blood glucose response.
The Advertising Standards Authority’s (ASA’s) policing of EU health claims offers a ray of light to food firms looking to use them in advertising, according to Eversheds senior partner Owen Warnock.
Last week, Peter Zambetti, director of global business development at Capsugel and chairman of the International Alliance of Dietary Supplement Associations (IADSA), discussed the impact of GMPs on the global health & nutrition (H&N) sector. In...
The global health and nutrition (H&N) sector continues to expand, but regulations are tighter than ever and players need to understand this if they are to succeed, says the chief of the biggest global supplements organisation.
Athletics Australia (AA) – the body that represents elite athletes – is set to warn Australia’s best sports people that food supplements cannot be trusted to be contamination-free and deliver scant benefits.
The UK National Crime Agency (NCA) has been working with the UK and Scottish governments to shut down trade in the lethal industrial chemical, 2,4-Dinitrophenol (DNP), which has been used as a weight loss aid in some products.
Pepsi-owned Naked Juice has been told to remove the term 'antioxidant’ from its marketing materials as the UK advertising watchdog demonstrates its EU law enforcement bite.
A Lucozade Sport ad campaign has been slammed by the Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) for falling foul of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claims rules.
A probiotics specialist in the Netherlands has won a second claim for a multi-strain probiotic blend targeting vaginal health under European Union medical devices legislation.
“The impact of this longer-term erosion of the relationship with consumers will be profound.”
Widely despised and foreseen as an innovation crusher and healthy foods/supplements market wet blanket, we asked how life under the controversial EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) is panning out.
Centralising novel food regulation at EU level should allow safe and innovative food to reach the European market faster, the European Commission (EC) has said.
The Food Information for Consumers regulation (FIC) is set to come into effect this time next year. FoodNavigator spoke with Campden BRI’s principal food law advisor David Leeks to find out what changes to expect.
Supplements giant Herbalife has won an appeal against a verdict back in 2011 which tarred the firm's recruitment and selling structure as a pyramid scheme.
The divisive and long-unresolved battle over maximum permitted levels (MPL) of vitamins and minerals in foods and food supplements in the EU intensified today with a UK based group leaking documents detailing lobbying intentions of a newly formed pan-European...
UK authorities have backed a seed-based omega-3 and omega-6 oil source marketed as an alternative to echium oil after reviewing an EU novel foods application.
The European Commission has defended its decision to nominate four food industry experts to EFSA’s managing board, saying that EFSA’s founding regulation states four out of the 14 board members should represent “consumers and other interests in the food...
Last week the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) joined many other global regulators in concluding the controversial herb ephedra and its extracts are unsafe in food supplements, an assessment welcomed by groups like Food Supplements Europe, which...
The EU herbal products sector has come in with a mixed reaction to the UK MHRA announcement last week that the sell-through period for unregistered herbal medicines would finish on April 30 next year – some welcome the market clarity and clean-up it promises....
Incomplete or selective reporting, high drop-out rates and unplanned post-hoc analyses are some of the common health claim submission failures, EFSA’s claims panel chief professor Ambroise Martin, PhD, told a congress last week.
By Shane Starling at #FIE2013 in Frankfurt, Germany
Botanical food supplements deemed medicinal have less than six months to achieve herbal medicines status or be removed from shelves in the UK – but the sector says the law remains unclear.
The UK’s major food supplements trade association has joined the local medicines regulator in fighting a pharma player-led High Court legal action to ban glucosamine’s right to exist as both a food and a medicine in the UK and potentially other EU markets.
The UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) has warned consumers off VERSA-1, the second pre-workout sports supplement made by Texas-based manufacturer USPLabs containing the disputed ingredient, aegeline.
The Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) has joined the UK Food Standards Agency (FSA) in warning consumers off pre-workout sports supplement, OxyElite Pro.
The UK hospital system spends more on food supplements and medical food than it does on regular food, a situation that has provoked protest today – but the government says it is based on genuine need.
The botanicals industry was pleasantly surprised recently when the EU’s central science agency backed an isolated health claim for a bowel-benefitting herbal blend – but is EFSA really changing its botanicals approach before the EC has told it to?
The European Union botanicals sector has been in limbo since 2010 when 2078 botanical health claim applications were placed on hold as the European Commission bowed to pressure to reconsider the scientific criteria for their validation. With no end to...
After years of deliberation the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has handed in recommendations for vitamin C and manganese intakes among European populations.
Hangover supplement start-up Alcotox, known in the UK as Vital X, exemplifies holes in theoretically unified health claims regulation within the EU, legal hounds say.
Enzymes manufactured in India contaminated with an antibiotic have appeared in the US and Canadian markets after popping in Europe and Japan. The contamination could result in one of the biggest slews of product recalls in history.
EFSA’s approval this week of a botanical health claim for bowel health represents a significant shift in its assessment methodologies, according to an EU food law expert.
In a fresh raft of health claim opinions the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has backed certain carbohydrates for post-sports recovery and a vitamin B form for energy.
EFSA has said a plant-based blend of hydroxyanthracene derivatives can improve bowel function after analysing a dossier with two unpublished clinical trials from a French firm.
The chances of the European Commission (EC) approving the latest bid to use the term ‘probiotic’ as a ‘generic descriptor’ are slim, according to law firm Eversheds.
