Publications

EU Claims Regulation

GENERAL 

The Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 covers the use of nutrition and health claims in the EU. It applies to all nutrition and health claims made on food including fruit juices and juice products, in commercial communications, i.e. in the labelling, presentation or advertising of fruit juices (including on websites) when these products are intended to be sold directly to the consumer. It does not apply to business-to-business communication. 

In summary, the Regulation: 

  • Defines claims that can or cannot be made on fruit juices; 
  • Establishes lists of permitted nutrition and health claims that can be made on fruit juices based on generally accepted scientific evidence; 
  • Establishes procedures for authorisation of various claims; 
  • Determines which types of claims will be prohibited; 
  • Determines which foods will not be able to make claims. 
In addition, the Regulation sets general principles for all claims (e.g.: “claims cannot be false, ambiguous or misleading”, “claims cannot encourage of condone excess consumption of a food”, etc.) as well as general conditions for all claims (e.g.: consumer understanding, bio-availability, significant quantity, etc.). 


PERMITTED CLAIMS 

The Regulation provides: 

  1. A list of nutrition claims, including the possibility to claim that a fruit juice is a source of or rich in certain vitamins. 
  2. A list of health claims based on generally accepted scientific evidence, including the possibility to inform the consumers of the beneficial effects of the various nutrients and other food components contained in fruit juices; 
  3. A list of other health claims based on new scientific data or proprietary data to be approved following the application of a dossier; 
  4. A list of disease risk reduction claims, and 
  5. A list of claims referring to children's development and health. 
To access the claims register please go to hec.europa.eu/nuhclaims

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