Health Claims Related to Gut and Immune Function Under Review

10 Feb 2015 --- EFSA is giving stakeholders and other interested parties the opportunity to comment on the draft update of its guidance for health claims related to gut and immune function.

The revised guidance on health claims may give hope to probiotics manufacturers who have struggled to bring their products to the European market amid tight regulations on health claims.

This call for comments, which closes on 23 March 2015, may give manufacturers a chance to give their opinions on what needs to change and how regulations could be made easier.

The guidance, which was first published in 2011, is intended to assist applicants in preparing their applications for the authorisation of health claims related to the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system, and defence against pathogenic microorganisms. It includes examples from past and ongoing evaluations to illustrate EFSA’s approach to evaluating health relationships and outcome variables which may be acceptable in these areas, as well as the conditions under which they may be acceptable.

The revision takes into account the outcome of a public consultation on a discussion paper together with new scientific evidence available to EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA) and the experience gained from the evaluation of health claim applications related to the gastrointestinal tract, the immune system, and defence against pathogenic microorganisms.

An EFSA spokesperson told FoodIngredientsFirst: "EFSA has placed considerable focus on developing guidance on scientific substantiation of health claims since 2007 to provide assistance to applicants. It is anticipated that the revision would benefit both  industry/applicants, by providing clearer requirements, and evaluators of health claims, through receiving better applications.
 
"However, under the new guidance EFSA will also assess submitted health claims with the highest scientific standard."