Proposal for a Regulation of the European Parliament and of the Council amending Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods
Date: 2007-06-28
Institutions: European Commission
Subjects: approximation of laws, consumer information, consumer protection, foodstuff, health policy, labelling, nutrition

COMMISSION OF THE EUROPEAN COMMUNITIES 

Brussels, 28.6.2007 
COM(2007) 368 final 

2007/0128 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

amending Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods 

(presented by the Commission) 

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EXPLANATORY MEMORANDUM 

The  proposal  consists  of  two  amendments  to  article  14  and  28  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council on nutrition and health claims made 
on  foods.  Its  purpose  is  to  provide  for  an  adequate  transitional  period  for  health  claims 
referring to children’s development and health. 

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.  

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2007/0128 (COD) 

Proposal for a 

REGULATION OF THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND OF THE COUNCIL 

amending Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods 

THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT AND THE COUNCIL OF THE EUROPEAN UNION, 

Having  regard  to  the  Treaty  establishing  the  European  Community,  and  in  particular 
Article 95 thereof, 

Having regard to the proposal from the Commission1, 

Having regard to the opinion of the European Economic and Social Committee2, 

Having regard to the opinion of the Committee of the Regions3, 

Acting in accordance with the procedure laid down in Article 251 of the Treaty4, 

Whereas: 

(1) 

(2) 

(3) 

(4) 

Regulation  (EC)  No  1924/2006  of  the  European  Parliament  and  of  the  Council  on 
nutrition and health claims made on foods establishes rules for the use of claims in the 
labelling, the presentation and the advertising of foods. 

Health  claims  are  prohibited  unless  they  comply  with  the  general  and  specific 
requirements  laid  down  by  Regulation  (EC)  No  1924/2006  and  unless  they  are 
included in Community lists of authorised health claims. Those lists of health claims 
remain  to  be  established  following  procedures  detailed  in  the  Regulation.  As  a 
consequence, those lists will not be in force on the 1 July 2007, date of application of 
the Regulation. 

For this reason, Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 provides for transitional measures for 
health  claims  other  than  those  referring  to  the  reduction  of  disease  risk  and  to 
children's development and health. 

Concerning  health  claims  referring  to  the  reduction  of  disease  risk,  no  transitional 
measure was needed. Due to the prohibition of claims referring to the prevention, the 
treatment and the cure of a disease by Directive 2000/13/EC, and the introduction of 
the new category of claims referring to the reduction of disease risk by the Regulation 

1 
2 
3 
4 

OJ C […], […], p. […]. 
OJ C […], […], p. […]. 
OJ C […], […], p. […]. 
OJ C […], […], p. […]. 

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(EC)  No  1924/2006,  products  carrying  such  claims  should  not  have  been  on  the 
Community market. 

(5) 

(6) 

The category of claims referring to children's development and health was introduced 
at  a  very  late  stage  of  the  procedure  for  the  adoption  of  Regulation  (EC)  No 
1924/2006,  without  providing  for  transitional  measures.  However,  products  carrying 
such claims are already present on the Community market. 

In order to avoid disruption of the market, it is therefore appropriate to submit claims 
referring to children development and health to the same transitional measures as the 
other health claims. 

(7) 

Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 should therefore be amended accordingly, 

HAVE ADOPTED THIS REGULATION: 

Article 1 

Regulation (EC) No1924/2006 is amended as follows: 

(1) 

In Article 14, paragraph 1 is replaced by the following:  

‘1.  Notwithstanding Article 2(1)(b) of Directive 2000/13/EC, the following claims 
may  be  made  where  they  have  been  authorised  in  accordance  with  the 
procedure  laid  down  in  Articles  15,  16,  17  and  19  of  this  Regulation  for 
inclusion  in  a  Community  list  of  such  permitted  claims  together  with  all  the 
necessary conditions for the use of these claims: 

(a) 

reduction of disease risk claims, 

(b) 

claims referring to children's development and health.’  

(2) 

In Article 28(6), the introductory sentence is replaced by the following:  

‘Health claims other than those referred to in Article 13(1)(a) and in Article 14(1)(a), 
which have been used in compliance with national provisions before the date of entry 
into force of this Regulation, shall be subject to the following:’ 

This Regulation shall enter into force on 1 July 2007. 

Article 2 

This Regulation shall be binding in its entirety and directly applicable in all Member States. 

Done at Brussels, 

For the European Parliament 
The President 

For the Council 
The President 

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