Survey: Strict Regulations Pose Biggest Challenge to Nutrition Industry

24 Mar 2017 --- Strict EU regulations are posing the greatest challenge to nutrition companies, according to new research from the organizers of Vitafoods Europe. The survey also revealed that regulation posed an even bigger challenge than the state of the global economy.

Meanwhile, the UK’s decision to leave the EU did not rank highly as a concern for respondents. When asked what impact they thought Brexit would have on the European nutrition industry, 36% said it would have no impact, 32% said they didn’t know, 22% said it would be either very negative or fairly negative; and 10% said it would be either very positive or fairly positive.

The three biggest challenges facing the nutrition industry were named as named stricter regulation (43%), higher prices for raw materials (35%) and the state of the global economy (27%).

Six in ten (60%) said health claims was the main area of EU regulation affecting their companies, ahead of trade regulations (14%) and labeling regulations (13%).

Almost nine in ten (87%) considered it important that a nutrition ingredient or product is associated with an EFSA-approved health claim.

A quarter (24%) of respondents considered the current EU regulatory environment to be unhelpful to their companies, although significantly more (37%) considered it helpful.

Chris Lee, Managing Director, Global Health and Nutrition Network, Europe, Informa Exhibitions said: “Effective regulation is essential for consumer confidence and the industry understands its importance.”

“However, it can create major headaches, especially for smaller companies.”

“The process for establishing a health claim in particular can be frustrating, and it says a lot that companies view the prospect of tougher regulation as a greater challenge than the state of the world economy.”

“Fortunately, Vitafoods Europe provides a range of services to support and advise companies as they navigate their way around the regulatory maze.”

A new resource to help companies navigate the regulatory maze is now available from Vitafoods Europe.