EU Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods (No 1924/2006)

The aim is to regulate the claims on foods labelled and advertised in the European Union (EU). It ensures that all nutrition and health claims are evidence-based and are generally accepted by the scientific community. The claims are based on scientific data and beneficial effects. With this regulation, the EU tries to ensure that it protects the consumers by giving them necessary information to make choices that are based on full knowledge of the facts so that they are not misled, and to create equal conditions of competition for the food industry. The use of nutrition and health claims shall not: be false, ambiguous or misleading; give rise to doubt about the safety or the nutritional adequacy of other foods; encourage or condone excess consumption of a food. These rules are followed regarding labelling, presentation and advertising on food and beverages.

Regulation No 1924/2006 started on 1 July 2007. Prior to that regulation, the commission published a Nutritional Claims and Functional Claims Discussion Paper. It received comments from more than 90 stakeholders divided in 3 groups: industry group, consumer groups and other groups. The European Parliament held its first reading vote on the Commission's proposal on 26 May 2005. On 3 June 2005, EU health ministers unanimously endorsed the Commission's proposal, including the provision for nutrient profiles and the authorisation procedure, during a first reading vote at the Health Council. The European Parliament second reading vote took place on 16 May 2006, paving the way for final adoption of the new Health and Nutrition claims Regulation. Health claims; A health claim is any statement about a relationship between food and health. Nutrition claims; Any claim which states, suggests or implies that a food has particular beneficial nutritional properties. Nutrient; protein, carbohydrate, fat, fibre, sodium, vitamins and minerals listed in the annex to Regulation (EU) No 1169/2011, and substances that belong to or are components of one of those categories. Other substance; a substance other than a nutrient that has a nutritional or physiological effect

The claims are regulated by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), It is a legal framework used by food business operators when they want to highlight the particular beneficial effects of their products, in relation to health and nutrition, on the product label or in its advertising.

Regulation No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods gets reviewed multiple times: - 10/2015 the commision has published a roadmap on the evolution of the EU nutrition and health claims legislation. - On 20 May 2020, the Commission completed the Evaluation of the Regulation on nutrition and health claims, which was announced in its Better Regulation Communication of 19 May 2015 - 18 january 2024 wrote a new implementation report about NO 1924/2006, they focused on following topics: consideration of nutrien profiles in health claim assessments, consumer information, relevance of claims, botanicals, enforcement andhealth claims in online communications

1. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims_en" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims_en 2. https://europa.eu/youreurope/business/product-requirements/food-labelling/health-nutrition-claims/index_en.htm 3. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims_en 4. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims/nutrition-claims_en 5. https://food.ec.europa.eu/food-safety/labelling-and-nutrition/nutrition-and-health-claims_en 6. https://ec.europa.eu/smart-regulation/roadmaps/docs/2015_sante_595_evaluation_health_claims_en.pdf