The European Dairy Association (EDA) said it is in support of the EFSA’s opinion to introduce separate categories for natural products and has asked for “adequate” criteria for setting nutrient profiles.
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Within the current proposals for the category ‘dairy-based products’, a very limited number of dairy products will be able to carry nutritional or health claims, the EDA said. In order to avoid this and block further innovation in dairy product development, the association has proposed a series of adaptations.
The EDA said it “strongly opposes” the inclusion of imitation products in the category ‘dairy-based products’.
Dr Kleibeuker said: “Our opposition is completely in line with EFSA’s definitions of specific categories: milk and milk products play an important role in the dietary pattern of many Europeans, providing them a broad range of essential nutrients, such as calcium and protein.
“In our view, imitation products do not match these criteria; we see therefore no reason not to stick to the existing legal definition of milk and milk products, as stipulated in Annex XII of Regulation (EC) No 1234/2007.”
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By GlobalDataThe EDA also believes that the inclusion of imitation products will create an unfair competition between dairy and imitation products and will block further innovation in dairy product development.
Kleibeuker added that the nutrient profile scheme should be such that all more healthy and innovative products in each category are allowed to carry the claim.
“For us, the level of thresholds for the critical nutrients in the scheme is essential for allowing the more healthy and innovative products in each category to carry the claim. We recommend that for the cheese category, the limit for saturated fat should be 20g per 100g of product, and the limit for sodium should be 1000mg per 100g of product. If the commission adopts the current proposals, hardly any cheeses will be able to make nutritional or health claims, which will block further innovation in the cheese category.”
The EDA is asking the commission to take its points into consideration when finalising its proposal on the Nutrient Profiles Regulation, which will be sent in the coming days to the EU Parliament and the EU Council for approval.
