EFSA meets with stakeholders on health claims process
17 June 2009
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) this week met with health claims applicants and industry experts in Brussels to discuss the claims evaluation process for article 14 and 13(5) claims of the European Union's regulation on nutrition and health claims.
Participants discussed various aspects of the process such as how the Panel decides whether a claim is substantiated and how the evidence is weighted, what are the data requirements and pertinent studies to be included, and on what basis EFSA proposes for the wordings of claims.
Lorene Courrege, Director of Regulatory Affairs for European trade organisation EHPM, attended the meeting. She said: "As expected the meeting brought up no new surprises and there are sill numerous questions from applicants that were not addressed. However, it is a positive step that EFSA intends to set up a formal procedure for dialogue with applicants over their dossiers."
Commenting on the status of article 13.1 claims, Ms Courrege added: "We regret that the meeting did not address article 13.1 claims, and there was no opportunity to discuss this, but we hope that from this meeting EFSA and the European Commission acknowledge that there is an urgent need for dialogue with stakeholders before the first EFSA article 13.1 claims evaluations are published."
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