Evaluation of the regulation on nutrition and health claims by the European Commission: nutrients profiles

Jun 09, 2020
Sébastien Bouley

The nutrition and health claims regulation adopted in 2006 aims to protect consumers while ensuring an efficient functioning of the internal market. It regulates the use of nutritional and health claims on the labeling, presentation and advertising of foods. In this context, nutritional profiles are thresholds of nutrients such as fats, sugars and salt above which nutritional and health claims are restricted or prohibited. The specific objective of nutritional profiles is to avoid a situation where nutritional or health claims would mask the overall nutritional status of a food product, which could be misleading for consumers when trying to make healthy choices.

Nutritional profiles have not been established at EU level due to the strong controversy on the subject and the strong opposition of some Member States in 2009, when the Commission attempted to establish them. In addition, consumer organizations regularly advocate for their establishment.

This assessment concludes that the nutritional profiles are still adapted to the objective of the regulation on claims, namely to ensure a high level of consumer protection. Therefore, establishing nutritional profiles needs to be considered.

For more information, you can consult the report of the working group of the European Commission.

Orchidali can assist you in the preparation and drafting of regulatory files.