EUROPEAN NUTRITION AND HEALTH CLAIMS ON FOODS: THE CASE OF LYCOPENE

Considering that an increasing number of foods labelled and advertised in the Community include nutrition and health claims and in order to ensure protection for consumers and to facilitate their choice, the products put on the market (including imported products) should be adequately labelled. The EU has established the Regulation (EC) 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods, in which is prohibited that a food can be promoted like possessor of therapeutic or curative properties, and establishes the following categories of claims: “nutrition claims”; “health claims”; “reduction of the disease risk claims”. This Regulation should apply to all nutrition and health claims made in commercial communications, including generic advertising of food and promotional campaigns, such as those supported in whole or in part by public authorities. A varied and balanced diet is always a prerequisite for good health, although a single product could also have special relevance in the context of the total diet. Lycopene, natural component of tomato has a proved antioxidant action which is beneficial in the prevention and improvement of certain pathologies, since most of them begin with a process of cellular oxidation. In the case of lycopene and the products containing it in a natural form and significant amount an explicit authorization of its possible use in labelling it is not authorized under any of the categories previously exposed. At present this is an open process and different institutions are focusing their efforts on its recognition for labelling purposes. This is an important topic for industry in order to properly promote their manufactured products.