UK food supplements lobby group, Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), has launched a new campaign to keep maximum permitted levels (MPL) for food supplements in UK hands.
Walmark says it will take legal action against a Romanian government agency after one of its officials publicly criticised the eastern European supplement giant’s marketing and market share-gaining methods.
Four Traditional Chinese Medicines (TCM) sold online have been found to contain lead and mercury and can cause anaemia and brain damage, according to the UK medicines regulator.
Charging the private sector for European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) work will not generate enough cash and compromise the agency’s independence, a European Commission working group has found.
A Romanian government official has lodged an official complaint against eastern and central European food supplements mega-brand, Walmark, which it says exploits legal loopholes to bully competitors from market.
Leatherhead Food Research nutrition research manager Roberta Re calls for more rigorous science after pouring over the latest serving of article 13.5 opinions from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) in this guest article. All were ultimately refused,...
EFSA’s health claims panel has rejected 6 article 13.5 health claims for two digestion-focused probiotic submissions; cranberry and UTI; a potato extract and weight management; krill and menstrual discomfort; and fizzy water and GI response.
There is no surprise in the latest batch of European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) article 13.5 health claim rejections as the science presented in six dossiers was “lousy”, a consultant told us today.
German pharma giant Merck and global probiotics leader Chr Hansen have pulled the probiotic-allergy health claim they jointly submitted to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) less than four months ago.
French supplier Sylvan Bio is seeking dialogue with the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and EU authorities after the agency said in a just-issued positive article 13.5 health claim opinion there was no difference between Sylvan’s red yeast rice...
The European probiotic sector is moving forward with research around probiotic strain clusters it is hopeful can win the sector’s first health claim in the European Union.
Banning European fisherman from throwing away unintended catches and fillet waste can provide a significant boost to fish oil and fish meal supplies, says a global marine ingredients group.
One of the EU’s most venerated food law experts stated the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) has become so convoluted as to be unworkable, at a Brussels congress yesterday.
Despite a Food and Drug Administration (FDA) warning that a sibutramine-laced ‘Brazilian Slimming Coffee’ may pose a 'significant risk' to some US consumers, the product is still widely available online.
Italian food supplement manufacturers continue to make probiotic health claims under a “soft law” governmental decree, although the country’s stance could be challenged by EU organs, a lawyer said this morning at congress.
Most consumers know little to nothing about the EU health claim system, the European Food Safety Authority nor why a blanket ban has been imposed on probiotic marketing across the bloc, a functional food marketing expert told a conference this morning.
The European sports supplements sector is not under-regulated the industry has said in an angry reaction to calls for greater controls after the death of a woman running the London marathon last year was linked to the now-vilified and mostly banned stimulant,...
EU health claim laws that have banned the use of terms like probiotics and antioxidants because they are deemed to be implied claims, are “absurd”, a pressure group has said.
A single dose of the banned stimulant DMAA was the most probable cause of the heart attack that killed Claire Squires in hospital after she collapsed during the final metres of the 2012 London marathon.
The UK Food Standards Agency is assessing two novel food applications for clubmoss sporopollenin shell extracts and a novel omega-3 and omega-6 oil; while DSM is lauding the official EU recognition of nature-identical zeaxanthin.
With the European Union’s strict health food and supplement marketing laws in place, the European Commission’s food law unit head, Basil Mathioudakis, tells NutraIngredients why it’s generally working out fine… but don’t hold your breath over a hasty...
If there’s one thing India doesn’t need, that’s more bureaucracy. As the saying goes, the British introduced it, then the Indians perfected it post-Independence. And even as the country celebrated its sixty-fourth Republic day last week, all the form-filling...
UK Secretary of State for Health Jeremy Hunt has raised the controversial topic of maximum permitted levels (MPLs) of nutrients in food supplements in the EU with new EC health commissioner, Tonio Borg, Westminster has been told.
The ongoing imbroglio around botanical health claim regulation in the EU saw no sign of resolution in Brussels yesterday as the EC’s Basil Mathioudakis said any new regulatory framework could take “5-6 years” to become reality. Quite a sabbatical before...
Mutual recognition – the covenant that assumes what is good enough for one EU member state should be good enough for another – is a mislaid principle when it comes to EU food supplements law, a Brussels congress heard yesterday.
Lycopene, lutein, CoQ10, probiotics and any other nutrients rejected under the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) could be banned in food supplements, a Swedish government official told a congress in Brussels this morning. But legal hounds...
After a tidal wave of lawsuits and months of heated debate about the regulatory status of the stimulant DMAA (1,3-Dimethylamylamine), USPLabs has agreed to settle a nationwide class action suit challenging the legality and safety of its top-selling DMAA...
Mooted labelling changes in the European Union that will place warnings about omega-3 consumption have received a guarded welcome from the global group that represents the sector.
UK Liberal Democrat MP Dr John Pugh wants to know what changes in EU food supplement laws were discussed in a meeting this week between new European health commissioner Tonio Borg, and Jeremy Hunt, the UK Secretary of State for Health.
The UK advertising watchdog has told a Guernsey-based supplements retailer-maufacturer to amend advertisements around enzyme supplements claiming joint, digestive, heart and other benefits.
“They are prepared to surrender higher potency supplements at the altar of harmonisation."
UK Liberal Democrat parliamentarian, Dr John Pugh, quipped to NutraIngredients that the letter he and other UK MPs wrote to the UK press today in defence of high-dose food supplements, was not about, “protecting strange Bulgarian recipes of doubtful providence...
Finnish dairy and probiotics firm Valio says EU health claim laws are forcing it to add approved vitamins and minerals to products like probiotics that have failed to win EU health claims.
Herbalife Inc. fought back against negative press about its business model in a presentation for analysts Thursday that ran more than two hours. The company sought to refute in detail allegations made by hedge fund manager William Ackman in December...
An article in ‘Nature’ magazine welcoming tough EU health claim laws has highlighted the conundrum facing EU regulators if the Union is to adopt different claim-substantiation criteria for about 2000 ‘on-hold’ botanical claims.
Rowse Honey cannot claim it gives “slow release energy” following a UK advertising watchdog ruling that has disappointed the Oxfordshire firm and left it wondering how spread rival Nutella can make similar claims.
The UK Department of Health (DoH) has issued health claims guidance that makes it clear official European Union wordings are flexible but warns companies not to go too far.
European Union medicines agencies are reporting increasing numbers of ‘medical device’ applications for food supplement products rejected under strict EU health claim laws.
Parties on both sides of table have welcomed the recent decision by Australian and New Zealand ministers responsible for food regulation on the issue of health claims in the region.
The European Food Safety Authority has rejected health claims that a supplement containing a combination of lycopene, vitamin E, lutein and selenium “helps to prepare and activate tanning.”
Green tea extracts (Camellia sinensis (L.) Kuntze) and guarana do not promote weight loss, the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has found, amid a fresh batch of article 13.5 health claim rejections.
Red Bull has welcomed a ruling from France’s highest constitutional court striking-down the government’s plans to tax caffeine and taurine-rich energy drinks from 2013.
As attention turns to the enforcement of the EU’s controversial article 13, general function health claims list after a six month waiting period, an expert on the ground in Italy says the country’s policies will encourage law breaking.
From today food and supplement products marketed in the EU’s 27 member states must comply with the article 13, permitted list of health claims or face prosecution for misleading marketing.
With the December 14 enforcement of the EU's article 13 general function health claim list that includes 200+ approved claims and about 1500 rejections just two days away (after a six month lay-period), we polled key players for core reactions.
As the formlisation of the main organ (article 13.1 list) of the nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) kicks in this week, Professor Ambroise Martin, the new chair of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) health claims panel, tells NutraIngredients...
Food supplements multinational Solgar reveals the sweeping marketing and formulation changes provoked by Friday’s belated confirmation of a massive list of approved and non-approved claims under the 2006 European Union nutrition and health claims regulation...
Eight ingredients have won EU health claims that can be used to back messaging around metabolic syndrome – although the take-up to date has been lacklustre, says Euromonitor analyst, Diana Cowland.
Research conducted by ingredient developer Futureceuticals has demonstrated the existence of adulterated green coffee bean extract in the marketplace and has also teased out the probable adulterants.
