Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

The aim of this study was to survey the labelling of drinks with pronounced health
benefits found on the Swedish market today and to evaluate whether they are in
accordance to EU and national regulations or not. Especially the nutrition and health
claims were looked into. This study shows that there are several drinks with claimed
health effects being sold today. The process of approaching full functioning
regulations in the EU on nutrition and health claims is proceeding slowly. A snapshot
of today�’s market of drinks with pronounced health effects shows that there are
multiple cases of misleading statements and interfering labelling on the products.
Often it concerns nutritional labelling or health claims. In this study a total of 60
health claims were found on the products. The health claims were made on 10
different vitamins, seven different minerals, five other substances, dietary fibre (one
claim) and lactic acid bacteria (three claims). One health claim had reached a final
decision from the European Commission and is no longer allowed. For 44 health
claims found in this study similar claims were found in EFSA�’s (European Food
Safety Authority) Register of questions database and the evaluations of these were
used to estimate the outcome for those claims found in the study. The estimation
reveals that 38 health claims might be approved though 13 of these might be
considered to be misleading since the EU population does not have an inadequate
intake of the subject of the claim. Six of the health claims might not be permitted to
use. The 15 remaining health claims were not possible to estimate, as EFSA had not
evaluated health claims similar to these yet. The nutrition claims found on the
investigated products in most cases were in accordance to regulations, however a few
need to be clarified. A considerable amount of unclear expressions were found and
many ingredients were pointed out in the labelling and many of them need to be
clarified or explained as well. When the harmonized EU regulation on the use of
nutrition and health claims is of full coverage it will surely be easier for companies to
label their products in a truthful and lawful way compared to today.