Food Manufacturers Welcome Meeting with EFSA as Positive Step

This positive development follows requests from various stakeholders to have greater clarity and guidance about the procedure and criteria used by the EFSA NDA Panel of experts in the evaluation process.

19 Apr 2010 --- European food and drink manufacturers have welcomed the news of a forthcoming technical stakeholder meeting with EFSA (European Food Safety Authority) on 1 June in Parma.

The meeting comes at a particularly timely point in the EFSA evaluation process on over 4,000 generic claims submitted under the EC Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation. This positive development follows requests from various stakeholders to have greater clarity and guidance about the procedure and criteria used by the EFSA NDA Panel of experts in the evaluation process.

In advance of the meeting, EFSA will provide updated and combined briefing documents for stakeholderson the evaluations of Article 13.1, 13.5 and 14 health claims which will serve as a basis for discussions during the meeting. Based on the exchange of views, a more detailed brief will be circulated to all participants and interested stakeholders further to the meeting.

The Director General of CIAA, Mella Frewen, greeted the news of the upcoming EFSA meeting:

“The European food and drink industry welcomes this opportunity to meet and discuss with EFSA experts involved in the claims assessment process and we look forward to a constructive and interactive exchange of views. We very much hope that this meeting will be able to shed further light on the procedure used and the type of substantiation documents required by applicants when submitting a claim for assessment.”