Health written question – answered at on 7 June 2005.
To ask the Secretary of State for Health what assessment her Department has made of the effect on industry of the proposal for a regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods (2003/0165 COM); and if she will make a statement.
A supplementary explanatory memorandum 11646/03 was lodged in the Library in March 2004 covering a regulatory impact assessment (RIA). The Food Standards Agency (FSA) has worked together with the Small Business Service and the Cabinet Office regulatory impact unit to ensure as full an assessment as possible is made.
The RIA has since been revised to reflect changes to the text of the proposal following negotiation. These have included lengthening the transitional periods, removing proposed bans on types of health claim and clarifying the ways in which health claims would be authorised. The areas where industry may be subject to additional costs are re-labelling, possible reformulation, scientific substantiation of the effect claimed, and where the loss of a claim makes it uneconomic to market the product.
The FSA estimates that where nutrition or health claims underpin marketing of products the food industry and food supplements industry might face costs ranging from zero to £5 million as a result of this European Union proposal.
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