Granskning av drycker med hälsoprofil
påståenden och hälsomärkning
The aim of this study was to survey the labelling of drinks with pronounced healthbenefits found on the Swedish market today and to evaluate whether they are inaccordance to EU and national regulations or not. Especially the nutrition and healthclaims were looked into. This study shows that there are several drinks with claimedhealth effects being sold today. The process of approaching full functioningregulations in the EU on nutrition and health claims is proceeding slowly. A snapshotof today??s market of drinks with pronounced health effects shows that there aremultiple cases of misleading statements and interfering labelling on the products.Often it concerns nutritional labelling or health claims. In this study a total of 60health claims were found on the products. The health claims were made on 10different vitamins, seven different minerals, five other substances, dietary fibre (oneclaim) and lactic acid bacteria (three claims). One health claim had reached a finaldecision from the European Commission and is no longer allowed. For 44 healthclaims found in this study similar claims were found in EFSA??s (European FoodSafety Authority) Register of questions database and the evaluations of these wereused to estimate the outcome for those claims found in the study. The estimationreveals that 38 health claims might be approved though 13 of these might beconsidered to be misleading since the EU population does not have an inadequateintake of the subject of the claim. Six of the health claims might not be permitted touse. The 15 remaining health claims were not possible to estimate, as EFSA had notevaluated health claims similar to these yet. The nutrition claims found on theinvestigated products in most cases were in accordance to regulations, however a fewneed to be clarified. A considerable amount of unclear expressions were found andmany ingredients were pointed out in the labelling and many of them need to beclarified or explained as well. When the harmonized EU regulation on the use ofnutrition and health claims is of full coverage it will surely be easier for companies tolabel their products in a truthful and lawful way compared to today.