EFSA opinion on health claims published 02 Mar 2010

The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has published its second batch of opinions on a wide variety of health claims submitted by food businesses from across the UK and other EU member states.

The panel published unfavourable opinions on the majority of the claims in the second series due to the poor quality of the information provided to EFSA including:

  • lack of information to identify the substance on which the claim is based, e.g. “probiotics”;
  • lack of evidence that the claimed effect is indeed beneficial to the maintenance or improvement of the functions of the body (e.g. food with “antioxidant properties”);
  • lack of human studies with reliable measures of the claimed health benefit.

This is the second series of opinions on 'general function' health claims and the Panel is continuing its work on the remaining claims on the list. It expects to complete this work by 2011.

Back to top