Labels with unauthorised health claims

14 December 2012 will be a very important day for Health Claims on Nutrition and Food Supplements, and that day is approaching fast. From 14 December, only a very restricted number of permitted health claims may be used to promote or advertise food or nutritional products. Therefore all use of non-permitted health claims on product labels is prohibited.

A health claim refers to any text that states, suggests or implies that a relationship exists between a food or one of its constituents and health. Health claims can be divided in several categories. Obvious examples are claims as “high energy”, “healthy brains”, “long life” and so forth.

The new regime is based on Regulation 1924/2006. Until now, a little over 200 health claims have been approved under Regulation 432/2012, leaving the vast majority unapproved. All products that carry non‑authorised claims on their labels are not allowed to be sold on the European Market. We expect that Customs will actively verify the labels of nutritional products in order to monitor if they comply with the EU legislation.

Are your products held or seized by Customs or the NVWA because the product labels allegedly contain a non-permitted health claims? Feel free to call us to discuss your options.