Health Claims: Let Science Prevail

摘要

On March 16, 2011, a slight majority of members of the European Parliament’s Committee on Environment, Public Health and Food Safety adopted a resolution aiming at the refusal of authorising a health claim on infant foods (30 votes in favour, 28 against, 1 abstention) [1] . This resolution opposes the adoption of the health claim ‘Docosahexaenoic acid (DHA) intake contributes to the normal visual development of infants up to 12 months of age’, which had been recommended for adoption by both the European Commission and the Standing Committee on Food of the European Member States. Following this committee vote, the European Parliament’s plenary will now have to take a decision in the near future as to whether it supports or rejects the adoption of this health claim.