Enforcement of the nutrition and health claim regulation

The nutrition and health claim regulation (NHCR) aims to protect consumers against false or incorrect nutrition and health claims by requesting scientific substantiation. It also aims to establish a level playing field in the internal market for all food producers. European regulations such as the NHCR require national authorities to enforce these acts. Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 requires national authorities to adopt a risk-based enforcement approach for controls on compliance with feed and food law requirements. Our analysis shows fragment- ed national enforcement practices. So, 18 Member States have developed 13 different guidance documents on the flexibility of wording and/or compliance with the NHCR, whilst the Member State authorities have also taken diverging actions. The NHCR is therefore current- ly unable to establish a level playing field. An EU-wide approach in enforcement should be developed to ensure such fair competition in the internal market.