Abstract

The nutrition and health claims regulation, which came into force in January 2007, is the first piece of EU legislationlaying down harmonised rules governing the use of nutrition and health claims made on food. Whether generic or productspecific, a claimed functional effect must be underpinned by scientifically valid evidence under typical conditions of use. Todate some 1000 health claims have been assessed by the European Food Safety Authority, the majority of which receivedunfavourable outcomes. Several fibre claims were among these. This paper provides an overview of the implementation of theregulation to date with respect to fibre claims and refers to a regulatory definition and labelling considerations.