Juergen Schrezenmeir

University of Mainz
Germany

Title: How substantiating cause effect relationship for Health Claims?

Biography

Abstract

In the past EFSA has received a vast number of health claims for scrutiny. However, the majority of all applicant claims have been rejected, very often due to weak study design, poor and non reproducible results etc. In the nineties, it became obvious that there will be new and very restrictive process of evaluation of health claims for foods. Science had the view that health claims for foods should be validated with high-profile scientific studies, a process that is very close to clinical studies for pharmacological substances. Hence, only a small number of globally active food manufacturers were in a position to invest the huge sums necessary for the development and validation of foods and their respective claims. Looking more closely into the development of new functional foods and ingredients and in combination with an early to be planned study design it is possible to systematically develop new products in a networking process with the assistance of processing, analytics and food design experts.