Press Release For Immediate Release
21st October 2011
EFSA says prunes don't loosen the bowel
ANH-Intl releases list of nonsense evaluations by EFSA
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Natural health campaign group, Alliance for Natural health International (ANH-Intl), has today released a list of what it regards as wayward opinions on health claims by Europe’s highest authority on food safety, the Parma-based European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). Among EFSA’s opinions on nearly 3,000 ‘general function’ health claims, 80% of which it has rejected, is one that asserts there is no scientific evidence that the ingestion of prunes facilitates bowel function.
The opinions targeted by ANH-Intl were evaluated by EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Foods, Nutrition and Allergies (NDA), which has been tasked with providing them to the European Commission. In turn, the European Commission proposes, under the terms of Article 13.1 of the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR; No 1924/2006), to ban EU-wide all health claims on foods and food ingredients other than those that are specifically authorised following positive opinions by EFSA.
ANH-Intl believes there are fundamental flaws in the scientific methodology used by EFSA to evaluate causal relationships between ingestion of particular foods or food ingredients and health benefits. This methodology is responsible for an alarming 95% rejection rate of generic health claims for plant-based foods and food ingredients.
“Centralised control of health claims by these European authorities is going to prevent consumers from being able to discern healthy foods from less healthy ones,” said Robert Verkerk PhD, executive and scientific director of ANH-Intl. “EFSA is not prepared to accept that antioxidant-rich fruit and veg like berry fruits, broccoli or pomegranate have health benefits; it sees nothing healthy about green tea; and it is woefully out of touch by not recognising the seminal importance of probiotics and prebiotics in managing immune health”, added Dr Verkerk.
ANH-Intl’s 30-strong listing of EFSA-rejected health claims, along with reasons for rejection and known health benefits (based largely on the Natural Standard database), represents less than 1% of the generic, general function health claims rejected by EFSA. ANH-Intl hopes that its release of a shortlist of ‘wayward’ evaluations will help draw European citizens and Members of the European Parliament into the debate, in advance of full implementation of the controversial NHCR by the European Commission and Member State governments.
“EFSA needs to go back to the drawing board before it finds itself responsible for starving the European population of crucial information needed to make healthy and appropriate food choices,” commented Dr Verkerk. “At a time when chronic diseases are crippling healthcare systems around Europe, what we need is individuals taking responsibility for their health — and this requires information being given to them, not taken away.”
Members of the European Parliament (MEPs) voted to accept the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation back in 2006 on the basis that it would protect consumers from false and misleading claims. Few thought it would prevent the vast majority of health claims from ever reaching the public.
Verkerk asserted, “EFSA has to realise that its scientific methods — built on reductionism principles and controversial definitions of causality — cannot be used to evaluate the hugely complex interactions humans have with their food. Given the extraordinary rate of rejection of claims for foods and food ingredients that are known to benefit health in the real world, alarm bells should be ringing in the corridors of EFSA. It is now for consumers and MEPs to wake EFSA up to the shortcomings of its approach and find a new way forward”.
Ends.
CONTACT
Sophie Middleton, Campaign Administrator, ANH-Intl?+44 (0)1306 646 600 or [email protected]
NOTES FOR EDITORS
ANH-Intl list of ‘wayward’ health claim evaluations by EFSA, including reasons for EFSA rejection and known health benefits: /files/111020_NHCR_Art_13_1_negative_claims_list.pdf
ANH Feature on EFSA consultative workshop on independence and scientific decision-making processes, The Hotel, Brussels, 12th October 2011:/news/seeing-right-through-efsa%E2%80%99s-claims-of-transparency
Selected ANH-Intl reports on EFSA:
EFSA joins the EMA on the naughty step (6 Oct 2011)
/news/efsa-joins-the-ema-on-the-naughty-step
EFSA carries on regardless (6 May 2011)
/news/efsa-carries-on-regardless
MEP concerns mount over regulatory threats to natural healthcare ?(10 Mar 2011)
/news/mep-concerns-mount-over-regulatory-threats-to-natural-healthcare-0
More Alice in Wonderland decisions on health claims (24 Feb 2011)
/news/more-alice-in-wonderland-decisions-on-health-claims
EFSA—are you trying to poison us? (18 Dec 2008)
/news/efsa%E2%80%94are-you-trying-to-poison-us
Comments
your voice counts
21 October 2011 at 6:11 pm
Thanks for staying on top of this matter, ANH.
What an appalling travesty. But at least the EU's despotic nature is being signaled unequivocally by such measures. Now it's up to the public to respond, for its own sake. It certainly can't rely on 'the government' to look out for its best interests; can see clearly now that 'the government's' interests have been captured by the corporate sector, and the medical-pharmaceutical complex in particular.
Big Pharma has a lot to answer for. It needs to be made to. And just such arrogant steps as this ESFA directive stuff is what will alert the public to stand up and be counted - to clean the EU Augean stables of their placemen and -women for vested interests.
Fascism is alive and well in Europe. After all these years. Not a healthy outcome, for the laudable exercise, in creating community - ostensibly. Well; community of a certain kind. But one rather more like feudalism than a thriving democracy. Time to pull the plug on these best-laid plans o' mice an' men.
22 October 2011 at 12:03 am
.
<strong> Why these strange decisions?</strong>
.
<em> I believe I have the answer...</em>
<div style="color:#00FF00">
<h2>the EFSA is staffed by aliens!!</h2>
<em>The truth is out there....</em>
<ul>
<li><img src="http://mazeguy.net/fantasy/alien.gif"; alt="ET face" width="32" height="32" /> • . ⊗ </li>
<em>.....cue the music </em>
• . • . • . • . • .
</ul>
<em> ( Please excuse the humour. Must rush ... Ü )</em>
27 October 2011 at 1:30 pm
Get these idiots into a room, have each one drink a pint of prune juice and then lock the exits. Release from the room requires their signature reversing the opinion. The matter will be resolved in just a very few hours and somebody could make a pretty penny charging admission to the nearest restrooms. Better stock up on the TP, though!
01 February 2012 at 7:14 am
The UN and its various arms continue to stealthily erode little by little our freedoms, what little of them we have left! It seems that no organisation has teeth to fight this form of fascism. Those in the employ of pharmaceutical companies, and those connected to the UN show no sense of responsibility to his fellow man. When we wake up one day to a world resembling Orwell's 1984, these henchmen will be the first to realise that they did it to themselves! willingly!
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