An anomaly in EU regulations allows celebrities to endorse and make health claims about particular foods but prevents nutritionists who have more knowledge of products from doing the same, a conference heard today.
Dr Mary Flynn, chief specialist in public health nutrition with the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), said it was "odd" that we could watch people like golfer Padraig Harrington "taking the cholesterol challenge" while those who had a PhD were unable to make claims about products not backed up by scientific evidence.
"It means that you can have sports people who know nothing about nutrition saying I use this and whatever but no professional dietician or nutritionist or doctor is allowed say this will be good for you or not," she said.
She was speaking at a conference in Dublin today on health claims on foods and food supplements hosted by the FSAI.
Delegates heard some 38 claims about the health benefits of various foods marketed across Europe will have to come off product labels by the end of next month.
This is as a result of a detailed assessment of the scientific evidence to back up the claims, carried out initially by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and adjudicated on by it in 2008, and more recently channelled through the European Commission.
Any party wishing to make a health claim about a particular product had to submit an application to the EFSA under EU regulations which came into force in 2006. The EFSA received more than 44,000 claims for assessment with over 300 of them from Ireland. It hopes to have all adjudicated on by the end of next year.
Of those rejected so far two came from the National Dairy Council. It submitted an application to be allowed state three portions of dairy food everyday as part of a balanced diet may help promote a healthy body weight during childhood and adolescence and that dairy foods (milk and cheese) promote dental health in children. Any product which might bear such claims on their labels had to be taken off by the market earlier this month.
The National Dairy Council said its application was rejected because to get a claim approved it has to be matched to a particular product but it had cited dairy products in general. Also, guidelines of what information applications should contain were not issued in advance. It has submitted other claims which have yet to be adjudicated on.
To date 40 nutrition and health claims have been approved for use in the EU. These include claims that plant sterols have been shown to reduce cholesterol and that calcium and vitamin D are needed for normal growth and development of bone in children.
Prof Albert Flynn, who chairs the EFSA panel evaluating claims made about dietetic products, nutrition and allergies, said there were many claims that are generic that do not belong to anybody and could be used by any company, any size.
The FSAI said this offered a significant market opportunity for food businesses in Ireland who can use these approved health claims on their foods.
Meanwhile Dr Flynn said the aim of the EU regulations, under which product claims are now being assessed, were to prevent consumers being misled by exaggerated or false nutrition and health claims.
She said obesity levels were rising with two out of three men now overweight but when all product claims have been assessed by the EFSA and people had true information about what products did and did not do for them it should help bring down levels of obesity.
The food supplements industry is concerned however that the manner in which the new "well intentioned" regulations are being implemented will result in around 10,000 job losses in the UK alone and that product choices will be decimated. John Redman of Lamberts Healthcare Ltd said two leading European law firms had given advice that there were flaws in the execution of the regulations and in the manner in which submitted claims were being assessed to see if they should be approved or rejected.