Food and Drink Seminar

Health, nutrition and labelling – staying ahead of the changes

Katharine Vickery, Eversheds LLP

3rd October 2013

#thinkfoodlaw

Current Developments

• Nutrition and Health Claims: register of approved claims available and informal guidance available;

• New regulation on Generic Descriptors under Article 1(4);

• Judgment on Article 13.5 claims;

• Front of Pack Labeling Scheme introduced; and

• ECJ gives second ruling on meaning of Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation.

What’s changed over the past 12 months?

Health and Nutrition claims Additional claims and new guidance

1. 222 approved claims issued in December 2012 and more being added;

2. Barry Callebaut AG – successful claim application in relation to cocoa flavanols;

3. Three successful heart health claims for Omega 3.

Informal Guidance issued

• Informal guidance issued in January 2013.

• Guidance provided by 17 experts from Member States who met to discuss common approach for FBOs.

• The guidance is 6 pages long and is not legally binding.

Contents of the Informal Guidance

1. Adjusting the wording of a claim;

2. The use of the term “normal”;

3. The link between the claimed effect and the nutrient, substance, food or food category responsible for the effect;

4. Considerations for health claims about food supplements;

5. Presentation of general, non-specific health claims;

6. Trade mark, brand name or fancy name; and

7. Reference to excerpts from EFSA opinions.

Update to Article 1(4) - Generic Descriptors

• a term which has traditionally been used to indicate a particularity of a class of foods or beverages and which could imply an effect on human health e.g. include ‘tonic water’, ‘digestive biscuits’, ‘cough drops’

• the Commission has laid down the procedure FBOs must follow to be exempted from requiring a generic descriptor to be accompanied by a related and authorised nutrition or health claim

UK Front of Pack Labelling Scheme

• Voluntary Scheme introduced in June 2013

• Specific label (shown below)

• Highlights 'percentage reference intakes'

ECJ ruling on meaning of Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation

• Case of Green Swan Pharmaceuticals July 2013;

• Claim will be categorized as a “reduction of disease risk claim” if the consumer understands it to suggest a significant reduction in a risk factor for disease.

What’s on the Horizon?

What’s on the horizon?

• Get ready for Food Information Regulations – enforce from 13 December 2014:

• Botanicals – a decision due?

• Challenges to front of pack labeling?

Food Information to Consumer Regulation – are you prepared?

Changes include: •Minimum font size for mandatory information

•Nutrition labelling

•Mandatory information on allergens

•Extension of rules for origin of food labelling

•Possible change to “engineered nanomaterials”

Timetable for Implementation

• The labelling requirements will come into effect in 2014

• The obligations for nutrition labelling will not apply until 2016

• Implementing legislation in UK

• Impact on all labels in the end, but in particular consider

– labelling redesign and product relaunch projects

– new product development

Food Information to Consumer Regulation- Guidance available

• November 2012 – DEFRA Food Information Regulations 2013 Guide to compliance

https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/82663/consult-fic-guidance-20121116.pdf

DEFRA prepares for EU country of origin labelling

• DEFRA draft paper dated 10 September 2013;

• Country of origin labelling for fresh meat products under the FIR to be restricted to member states;

• Expert committee paper defines origin as being the place of both rearing and slaughtering.

Botanicals – what’s next?

• September 2010 – EFSA put on hold the assessment of 1,548 health claims for plants and herbals (botanicals).

• Discussions surround amendment to NHCR or new regulations.

• Latest indication is that a new regulatory framework could take 5-6 years to implement.

• Pending legal cases on the unfairness of

claims being ”on-hold”.

Challenges to FOP labelling?

• The Italian food industry:“deeply concerned”

• FoodDrinkEurope: “colour coding could fragment the issue of nutrition labelling in the EU”

• German food industry association, BLL: ”traffic light system too simplistic” “German consumers prefer GDA labelling”.

Questions?

katharinevickery@eversheds.com

Tel: 0845 497 1771

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