FSA Consultation Letter, 15 December 2009

CLAIMS - Revision of FSA guidance to compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on food

A copy of the consultation package is available on this site. See: FSA Nutiriton and Health Claim Guidance Consultation

Responses are requested by: 23 March 2010

Audience

Who will this consultation be of most interest to?

Food businesses and doctors and health professionals making nutrition and health claims, charities, local authorities, port health authorities and other enforcement authorities.

What is the subject of this consultation?

Revision of FSA guidance to compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on food.

What is the purpose of this consultation?

To formally seek stakeholders' comments and views on the draft updated guidance to compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on food and the accompanying Impact Assessment.

Consultation details

The Agency seeks views on draft updated guidance to compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on food.

The Agency published the first version of guidance to compliance with Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 in April 2008, following consultation in 2007. The guidance aims to help food business operators making nutrition or health claims comply with the Regulation, and provide a tool for enforcement bodies to help ensure consistent and proportionate application of the Regulation.

That guidance includes a commitment to provide further guidance on recommendations or endorsements by national associations of medical, nutrition or dietetic professionals and health related charities. This is necessary to provide charities and national associations and food businesses working with these organisations with the information they need to comply with the Regulation, to ensure that compliant claims are made and consumers are not misled.

Stakeholders have also asked for some sections of the guidance to be made clearer or elaborated upon, for example where there have been differences of opinion on the interpretation of Article 12(c) of the Regulation. The guidance also needs to be updated in light of discussions with UK stakeholders and other Member States on some other interpretive issues and to reflect the fact that progress that has been made in implementing the Regulation, for example some transition periods and deadlines laid down by the Regulation that were mentioned in the guidance have now passed.

Proposals:

The Agency has updated the guidance to ensure it is up to date and is as clear and comprehensive as possible. This should improve compliance with the Regulation and therefore ensure a high level of consumer protection from misleading claims. The draft guidance has also been revised to align it with the standard FSA template.

Key changes to the draft guidance are:

• New guidance on health-related charity and national association endorsements.
• Revised section on health claims making reference to recommendations by doctors and health professionals to ensure the interpretation of this provision of the Regulation is clear.
• Updated in light of discussions with UK stakeholders and other Member States on some other interpretive issues to provide additional clarity and to reflect the fact that progress that has been made in implementing the Regulation, for example some transition periods and deadlines laid down by the Regulation have now passed.

Consultation Process:

The Agency has had meetings and discussions with the British Dietetic Association, and has received questions and comments on the guidance informally from food businesses, enforcement authorities and charities.

The consultation will run for 14 weeks. Interested parties are encouraged to contact the Agency with any comments or queries they may have. It is not envisaged that there will be any further consultations or formal correspondence on this version of the guidance.

A summary of responses received will be published on the Agency’s website within three months of the end of the consultation. All responses received will be considered by the Agency when finalising the revised guidance for publication. Where comments have not been taken into account, reasons why will be given in the consultation response summary.

Questions asked in this consultation

Guidance:

• Have you found the current guidance useful? Please give reasoning for your answer.
• Do you agree the amended and new text in the revised guidance is helpful and adequately and clearly reflects the requirements of the Regulation? If you disagree with any of it please state the reason(s) why.
• Are there any other sections of the existing guidance that you think should be revised? If so, please indicate which sections and why.
• Is there any additional information that should be included in the guidance?
• Is the new section on recommendations and endorsements by national associations of medical, nutrition or dietetic professionals and health-related charities helpful? What impact will this have on national associations and charities making food-related recommendations and endorsements, and food businesses working in partnership with them?
• Is the revised section on claims, which make reference to the recommendations of individual doctors or health professionals, helpful?

Impact Assessment:

• Do you foresee any positive or negative impact resulting from the introduction of the guidance on recommendations and endorsements? Please quantify any impact.
• Do you foresee any positive or negative impact resulting from the other new or revised sections of the guidance? Please quantify any impact.
• Do you have a more accurate figure of how many food businesses are currently making or selling products bearing nutrition or health claims?
• Are the time and cost estimates for familiarisation of the new and amended sections of the guidance realistic? If not, please provide estimates of the time and cost spent.
• How much money do charities and other national associations currently make from fundraising activities linked to food promotions? What proportion of these are solely for fundraising purposes?
• What is the likely financial impact on doctors and other health professionals on the revised section of the guidance on recommendations and endorsements?
• We invite stakeholders to comment on the above assessments.

For the purposes of this consultation, removed text has been struck through and new text has been highlighted yellow to make it easier to identify the key changes to the first version of the guidance.

The Agency welcomes all comments on the draft revised guidance and associated impact assessment from any stakeholder. In particular, food businesses, doctors and other health professionals, charities and other national associations of medical, nutrition or dietetic professionals and enforcement authorities are encouraged to respond with their views.

Responses:

Responses are required by close 23 March 2010. Please state, in your response, whether you are responding as a private individual or on behalf of an organisation/company (including details of any stakeholders your organisation represents).