Consumers and Health

Health claims on food: year-long wait for Commission action

April 11, 2025

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On 18 January 2024, the European Parliament adopted a landmark resolution providing a comprehensive evaluation of the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (NHCR).

This parliamentary assessment echoed the critical findings of the European Court of Auditors’ 2024 special report on food labelling in the EU.

Despite these authoritative calls for action, the European Commission has yet to propose concrete measures to address the identified shortcomings.

Table of Contents

EU’s Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation: background

The NHCR represents a fundamental pillar of EU food law, designed to harmonise the use of nutrition claims (such as ‘low fat’ or ‘high in fibre’) and health claims (like ‘calcium contributes to the maintenance of normal bones’) across Member States. Its threefold objectives remain as relevant today as when the regulation was adopted:

ensuring that all nutrition and health claims are scientifically substantiated, clear and accurate;
empowering consumers to make genuinely informed dietary choices;
creating a level playing field for food businesses operating in the internal market.

Systemic implementation failures

The Parliament’s resolution provides a meticulous analysis of where the NHCR has failed to deliver on its promises, as follows.

The nutrient profiles debacle

Article 4 of the NHCR explicitly required the European Commission to establish nutrient profiles by 19 January 2009. These profiles were meant to determine which foods, based on their nutritional composition, could bear nutrition and health claims.

Sixteen years after this deadline, the Commission has still not fulfilled this legal obligation. This failure has created a regulatory vacuum that allows food companies to make health claims on products high in fat, sugars or salt (HFSS) – as exemplified by Danone’s controversial health claims on sugary drinks.

The absence of nutrient profiles fundamentally compromises the objective of the NHCR, which is to protect consumers from misleading claims and exposure to unhealthy, high in fat, sugar, and salt (HFSS) foods.

Front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) stagnation

The Commission’s Farm to Fork Strategy explicitly committed to proposing a mandatory, harmonized front-of-pack nutrition labelling (FOPNL) scheme. Such labelling systems (like Nutri-Score) have been shown to help consumers quickly identify healthier options. However, progress has stalled despite clear evidence of their effectiveness and strong public health arguments in their favor.

The botanical claims quagmire

Since 2012, over 2,000 health claims related to botanicals have remained in regulatory limbo on the so-called ‘on hold’ list. This situation stems from the absence of harmonised EU rules for botanical substances used in foods and food supplements. The current patchwork of national approaches means that a plant substance may be classified as a food in one Member State and as a traditional herbal medicine in another. This lack of legal certainty creates confusion for both businesses and consumers while potentially compromising product safety.

Enforcement disparities and digital challenges

The Strasbourg Assembly also highlighted significant inconsistencies in how Member States enforce the NHCR, particularly regarding online marketing and advertising. In the digital age, where influencers routinely promote food products with health-related messaging, the current enforcement framework appears increasingly inadequate. These disparities create an uneven playing field for businesses while leaving consumers vulnerable to misleading claims and predatory marketing of HFSS foods.

A blueprint for reform

The Parliament’s resolution goes beyond mere criticism, offering a comprehensive set of recommendations to make the NHCR fit for purpose:

immediate adoption of nutrient profiles. The Commission must urgently propose science-based nutrient profiles that prevent health claims on HFSS foods, aligning with the Farm to Fork Strategy’s objectives. These profiles should be based on independent scientific advice and updated regularly to reflect evolving nutritional science;
mandatory front-of-pack nutrition labelling. A harmonised, mandatory EU-wide front-of-pack nutrition labelling scheme should be implemented without further delay, as the Parliament has recently reiterated. This system should: use an evidence-based, colour-coded design (like Nutri-Score); include information about food processing levels (as proposed by Nutri-Score creator, Professor Serge Hercberg); be accompanied by robust consumer education initiatives;
resolution of the botanical claims deadlock. The Commission must: accelerate the evaluation of pending botanical claims and establish clear EU-wide rules for the use of botanicals in foods and supplements — an absence that was also noted by the European Court of Justice in 2020; clarify the distinction between food supplements and herbal medicines; create an EU negative list of prohibited botanical substances;
strengthened enforcement framework. The resolution calls for: updated guidance on digital marketing and influencer communications; enhanced cooperation between Member States’ enforcement authorities; specific measures to protect children from misleading marketing of HFSS foods;
comprehensive regulatory review. Given the NHCR’s multiple implementation failures, which include the probiotics missed opportunity, the Parliament suggests the Commission should consider a full review of the regulation to ensure it remains fit for purpose in today’s food environment.

Interim conclusions

The European Parliament’s resolution represents perhaps the most authoritative assessment to date of the NHCR’s troubled implementation. As our previous analysis noted, the regulation risks becoming irrelevant without urgent reform.

With diet-related diseases accounting for 8 million premature deaths annually in Europe, and childhood obesity rates continuing to rise, the Commission’s continued inaction on nutrient profiles and front-of-pack labelling is increasingly indefensible. The resolution makes clear that technical solutions exist – what has been lacking is political courage to implement them.

The coming months will show whether the Commission is finally ready to address these long-standing issues or whether the NHCR will continue to be, as critics have described it, ‘the eternal unfinished regulation’ of EU food law — serving the interests of HFSS corporations at the expense of public health.

Dario Dongo

References

European Parliament (2024, January 18). Resolution on the implementation of Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (2023/2081(INI)) (P9_TA(2024)0040) https://tinyurl.com/4jaj4sat
European Court of Auditors (2024). Food labeling in the EU: Consumers can get lost in the maze of labels (Special Report No. 23/2024). https://tinyurl.com/ykt2c3s5
Andreani, G., Sogari, G., Wongprawmas, R., Menozzi, D., & Mora, C. (2025). Nutri-Score and Eco-Score Labeling: A Systematic Review of Their Impact on Consumer Understanding, Attitudes, and Behaviors. Food Reviews International 1-25. https://doi.org/10.1080/87559129.2025.2460052
European Court of Justice. (2020, September 10). Konsumentombudsmannen v. Mezina AB, Case C-363/19. https://tinyurl.com/bddyjf2t
European Parliament, Policy Department for Economic, Scientific and Quality of Life Policies. Directorate-General for Internal Policies. Olivia Aouati et al. (2024). Current challenges and opportunities for addressing obesity. European Parliament. PE 754.218 https://tinyurl.com/mc5nn2ht