Experts have long identified health as a ‘mega-trend’ in the food and beverage industry, and health and well-being continue to drive consumer spending habits. Consumers are now requesting clarification into nutritional content, and this is reflected in a growing amount of research being conducted and a surge in product innovation. If the beneficial effects are scientifically recognised, nutritional health claims can aid consumers in their understanding of the product, and promote well-informed and wise food choices. In today’s health-focused society, the food industry is witnessing a shift from hunger satisfaction to real health value, signalling further scientific advancement and strengthened consumer understanding of nutritional health.
Health claims explained
The European Regulation on Nutrition and Health Claims is the acting organisation that administers nutritional health claims in the European Union (EU) by defining the conditions of use, establishing a system for scientific evaluation and maintaining a register of authorised health claims. All claims have to comply with certain general principles to ensure that they are not false, ambiguous or misleading. There are two different types of health claims that help to categorise nutritional benefits.
A ‘functional claim’ implies that a relationship exists between a food – or one of its ingredients – and health, whereas a ‘reduction of disease-risk claim’ is defined as any health claim that significantly reduces a risk factor in the development of a disease.
Laws passed by the EU have also influenced regulatory developments around the world. For example, the Codex Alimentarius guidelines have initiated a common approach in the substantiation of health claims, and serve as an important step towards global coordination and harmonisation.
The role of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
EFSA oversees several significant tasks, including determining the nutritional description and ensuring the scientific substantiation of health claims. In terms of work intensity and complexity, these tasks are significantly challenging. In this context, the EFSA panel on dietetic products, nutrition and allergies (NDA panel) is vital in licensing health claims and its scientific opinion on the validation of health claims serves as the basis for authorisation. The lists of all authorised and prohibited claims are published in the EU Register of Nutrition and Health Claims.
Building on experience gained in the evaluation of health claims, and the assisting of applicants in the preparing and submitting of applications, the EFSA NDA panel has developed a range of comprehensive guidelines that work to define an array of physical effects considered beneficial to human health. The recommendations require sufficient evidence of cause and effect. EFSA’s prescribed guidelines are difficult to achieve due to their stringent nature and the fact that nutritional science is making rapid advances. This poses major challenges for applicants, who need to ensure that the design, execution and interpretation comply with EFSA requirements.
Beneficial physiological effects of micronutrients
Micronutrients play an important role throughout the human life cycle, delivering fundamental effects that are essential for the structure and function of organs as well as numerous physiological states, including reproduction, conception, growth and development, and body maintenance. Human bodies, whether through diet, vitamin supplementation or fortified foods, need vitamins to grow, function, stay healthy and prevent diseases. The well-established functions of vitamins and minerals are documented extensively in scientific literature and in the establishment of the EU Register of Permitted Claims.
EFSA considers each functional claim or disease-risk-reduction claim on a case-by-case basis. From a sociodemographic perspective, the population group for which claims are intended can differ. Some examples of these groups include the general population, the healthy population or specific subgroups, such as elderly people, highly physically active people, pregnant women and many more.
Ensuring safe uptake of micronutrients
Eating a healthy and balanced diet remains integral to all dietary recommendations. However, national dietary and nutritional studies worldwide continue to show levels of inadequate nutrient intake and nutrient deficiency among a range of population groups.
There are three fundamental ways to ensure safe uptake of essential vitamins and minerals for human health and well-being:
- the consumption of nutrient-dense foods, such as fruit and vegetables, wholegrain cereals, meat and dairy products
- the intake of foods with added nutrients
- the use of dietary supplements.
In establishing an optimal diet, it is important to adopt nutritional guidelines as part of an everyday lifestyle. The three factors above provide scientists and food manufacturers with opportunities to develop nutrient-dense foods that are low in calories.
Because vitamins and minerals are essential for human health, regulatory authorities must ensure that levels of micronutrients in the total diet are safe. As such, there are imminent regulatory developments in the EU that aim to set maximum levels. It is, however, important that the guidance accounts for the adverse effects of suboptimal intake and deficiency.
Establishing nutrient profiles
When it comes to establishing nutrient profiles, a product developer must take the following aspects into account:
the quantities of certain nutrients and other substances contained in the food, such as fat, saturated fatty acids, trans fatty acids, sugars and salt/sodium the role and importance of the food and its contribution to the diet of the population in general, or within certain risk groups the overall nutritional composition of the food and the presence of nutrients that are scientifically recognised as having an effect on health.
EFSA addresses several vital components, including the choice and balance of nutrients, the choice of reference quantity, the basis of nutrient profiles (for example, per 100g, per quantified serving or per 100kcal) and the approaches to calculation. The scientific and food policy challenges are considerable when developing a nutrient-profiling system. Scientists tend to focus attention on establishing a system based on objective scientific criteria, whereas food companies seek to use nutrient profiles as a platform on which to market a product, such as reducing fat, sugar or salt in products, while maintaining taste and quality.
Consumers rely on nutrient profiles and labelling to improve their daily diet while altering dietary behaviour relative to lifestyle, age and potentially to individual genetic character.
Consumer understanding of health claims
In the EU and around the world, the regulations leading nutrition and health claims are designed to protect consumers from misleading and false claims, and to ensure confidence in claims on foods and food supplements. Claims must assist consumers in making informed choices by helping them to identify particular foods and food ingredients, as well as encouraging consumption of such foods as part of a varied and balanced diet to promote a healthy lifestyle.
From an industry perspective, claims are used to identify and promote products. Claims communicate to consumers, and aim to convey information regarding food characteristics and health benefits that may otherwise remain unknown to the consumer. On the front of pack, consumers prefer simple and easy-to-understand information with detailed information provided on the back. Graphically, the presence of a logo or an endorsement of a claim can also lead to easy interpretation, furthering consumer understanding.
Consumer understanding of the strength and reliability of health claims remains a global debate. It has been highlighted that more research needs to be conducted into how consumers interpret claims, with the challenge being how to accurately translate the scientific wording of the nutrient benefit into consumer layman language. There is also a need for communication and education on what it means to lead a healthy lifestyle and the role of food health claims, requiring close cooperation between regulatory bodies, governmental organisations, academia, consumer organisations and the food industry.
Facilitating healthy food choices
Foods and food supplements with validated health claims are aimed primarily at the normal healthy population or population subgroups that wish to optimise their nutritional status or reduce the likelihood of acquiring a particular chronic disease in later life. Health claims provide guidance and help to contextualise a balanced diet and a healthy lifestyle. Consumers should be able to make choices based on clear and accurate information, and have confidence in the scientific and regulatory processes used to support health claims.
It has been proven in recent years that certain food ingredients possess beneficial physiological and nutritional effects that go beyond widely accepted nutritional effects.
The shift from hunger satisfaction to real health value is a major incentive for the food industry to continue to innovate and develop new technologies. It can also be seen as heralding a renaissance in scientific research on global human nutrition and health.