Proposals to allow food manufacturers to claim that adding the fatty acid DHA to baby food helps the visual development of infants up to a year old were backed by The European Parliament today (6 April).
Too few MEPs backed a motion proposed by the Parliament’s health and food safety committee that there was “no scientific consensus on the effect that DHA-fortified formulae has on infants”.
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An absolute majority of MEPs – 368 – were needed to make this amendment count – and its supporters fell well short.
This failure will allow baby-food manufacturers to make these claims on packaging under the EU’s health claim legislation. The EU Council of Ministers accepted the claim last Thursday. It already had the support of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).
