Explanatory Memorandum to COM(2007)368 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods - Main contents
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This page contains a limited version of this dossier in the EU Monitor.
| dossier | COM(2007)368 - Amendment of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods. |
|---|---|
| source | COM(2007)368  |
| date | 28-06-2007 |
Such health claims, like other health and nutrition claims, are already used in the Community market. Nutrition claims which have been used in a Member State before 1 January 2006 in compliance with national provisions applicable to them and which are not included in the Annex of the Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006, may continue to be used until three years after the entry into force of the Regulation. Health claims other than those referring to children development and health also benefit for transitional measures detailed in article 28, paragraphs 5 and 6 of this Regulation.
However, Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 ended up not foreseeing similar transitional measure for claims referring to children development and health. This situation arose from the different amendments to the Regulation adopted during the codecision procedure. In order to ensure better protection of children, it was decided to consider the claims referring to their development and health under the same regime as the reduction of disease risk claims (authorisation). This change was introduced by two amendments that consisted in adding the words “and claims referring to children's development and health” to the title and the first paragraph of article 14 of the Regulation, which is dealing with the reduction of disease risk claims. As a consequence, claims referring to children are treated as the disease risk claims for which no transition period is foreseen by the Regulation because they were not allowed under the rules applicable prior to the adoption of the Regulation.
The lack of transitional measures for the claims referring to children’s development and health would imply that as from the application of the Regulation (1 July 2007), those claims would not be allowed to be made for products produced after that date. The only existing transitional measure applicable to claims referring to children’s development and health is laid down in article 28, paragraphs 1. It concerns the products that will be placed on the market or labelled before 1 July 2007. This transitional period will apply to the products physically present on the shelves or already labelled, but not to products produced and distributed after that date. When stocks run out, an interruption to the market will occur.
It is therefore proposed to provide transitional measures for claims referring to children’s development and health.
Such a transitional period and authorisation process for claims referring to children's development and health will ensure the protection of the group of consumers for which they are intended, and provide the economic operators with the adequate time to ensure a smooth transition in complying with the provisions of the Regulation.
The proposal has no implications for the budget of the European Community.