The proposed EU Regulation on Health Claims, which is being put to the College of Commissioners today, will damage European business and restrict consumer choice, according to a number of leading food industry bodies.
The Food and Drink Federation (FDF) for example, a leading voice of the UK food and drink manufacturing industry, believes that the move will result in the censoring of important consumer information.
"Whilst we welcome the move to harmonise the laws on health claims, the new proposal moves away from recognising the validity of health and nutritional claims on their scientific merits and labels products as good or bad foods - with only so-called good foods being able to make a health claim," said FDF deputy director general Martin Paterson.
"This shambolic process not only stops manufacturers from being able to communicate a product's benefit to their customers, but also assumes that consumers don't want to know about it on the basis of the product's other ingredients. It's baffling to us, and its censorship to the consumer. UK consumers are pretty savvy - UK manufacturers want to help them to make informed choices."
The FDF believes that the proposal bans too many types of health claims such as behavioural and psychological claims. "If there is credible scientific evidence to back a claim, why shouldn't a manufacturer be able to make it?" said Paterson.
The proposal, he says, will also restrict innovation because companies will not invest in expensive research and development if they are not able to communicate the benefits of a new product to consumers. This he believes, will place a disproportionate burden on companies who wish to make a claim by requiring that they translate the proposed claim into all Member State languages.
The European Commission proposal has also drawn criticism from the Confederation of the Food and Drink Industries (CIAA).
"While we support the principle of establishing a harmonised regulatory framework encompassing all types of claims, including disease risk reduction claims, we strongly oppose any a priori prohibition of claims or exclusion of categories of foods from the possibility of communicating a nutrition or health benefit to the consumer," said Jean Martin, CIAA president.
"All claims that are science based and well understood by the consumer should be allowed."
Martin says that the CIAA will continue to voice its position in discussions with the Commission, the Parliament, the Council and all interested parties as the process goes forward. The organisation says it will work to ensure that the regulation does not unnecessarily restrict the food and drink manufacturers' ability to communicate health benefits to consumers and achieves its goal of stimulating innovation in the food sector.
The CIAA is the voice of EU food and drink industry at the level of European and International Institutions and aims to contribute to thedevelopment of an international regulatory and economic frameworkaddressing industry's competitiveness, food quality and safety.