Health claims on functional food seldom convince European Commission

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Functional foods have rapidly become part of the Finns’ everyday life. The first foods claimed to have health-promoting properties were Gefilus products introduced by the Finnish dairy cooperative Valio some 20 years ago.
      Functional food is any healthy food with one of the ingredients claimed to have a health promoting or disease-preventing effect, for example on the intestines, the bones, the heart, or the blood vessels.
     
The most well-known beneficial substances are antioxidants and probiotics. Antioxidants are vitamins and minerals, while the most common types of microbes used as probiotics are lactic acid bacteria.
      However, antioxidants and probiotics alone are not sufficient. They should be consumed as part of a varied diet.
      At the turn of the millennium, every Finn consumed six litres of Gefilus products annually. Today, they are consumed in 50 countries.
      Finnish Gefilus products contain large amounts of Lactobacillus GG, a lactic acid bacterium which thanks to its health-promoting qualities is the most intensely researched probiotic bacterium.
      The Gefilus product range includes milk, buttermilk, yoghurt, and various wellness drinks.
     
The popularity of health-promoting foods can be seen in supermarkets, with several choices available.
      Similarly, there is a large selection of health claims to choose from.
      A few years ago, the Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira found a total of 620 health claims on foodstuffs.
      When it comes to the entire European Union area, the number of health claims was as many as 44,000.
      According to such claims, for example eating oats increases the feeling of satiety, xylitol chewing gum reduces the amount of dental plaque that builds up on the teeth, and the amino acid glutamine is good for mental health.
     
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) is currently assessing the accuracy of 4,185 such health claims.
      The evaluation is strictly scientific, and all claims will have to be verified by research results.
      ”It is good if one-tenth of all health claims are approved”, says Marina Heinonen, a lecturer at the University of Helsinki and a member of the EFSA Scientific Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies, which has been asked by the European Commission to provide advice in setting nutrient profiles for foods bearing nutrition and health claims.
      The evaluation is to continue for a few years.
      Last autumn, an EFSA colloquium rejected around 200 health claims on whether a product could be called a probiotic or whether a product could be scientifically recognised as having an effect on the health of the intestines.
      In another evaluation last week, most of the health claims under scrutiny were rejected.
      This time the rejections were focused particularly on antioxidants.
     
The EFSA is to submit its statement to the European Commission, which is expected in turn to issue a directive on what health claims on products are allowed and what is not permissible.
      So far, the European Commission has approved only a few health claims. Among them are also some products that have been developed and used in Finland: Xylitol chewing gum has been found to reduce the amount of dental plaque that builds up on the teeth, and for example the addition of plant sterols and stanols to margarine spreads has been found to reduce cholesterol.
     
In Finland, health-promoting foods are studied actively at three universities as well as at VTT. Their research is focusing on the functional properties of for example fibres, bioactive peptides, and flavonoids found in berries.


Links:
  Finnish Food Safety Authority Evira
  The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)
  Functional food (Wikipedia)

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