116. The Committee recalled that following the request of the Committee on Food Labelling for advice concerning the scientific basis for health claims, it had been agreed that the Delegations of France and the United States, with the participation of other countries, would prepare a document considering scientific criteria for health related claims
117. The Delegation of France introduced the paper, the first part of which considered questions of principle related to health claims, as follows: the definition of health claims, the definition of scientific criteria relating to the safety and quality of the product, the effect claimed, the impact of the claim on the general population and specific groups, evaluation of the claimed effects, and periodic reevaluation. The Delegation indicated that current scientific methodology allowed to evaluate the relationship between the food components and the health outcome. The second part of the document referred to experience of the United States with the regulation of health claims at the national level, and especially the scientific review of data for health claims.
118. The Committee expressed its appreciation to the Delegations of France Denmark, Germany and the United States for their constructive work which provided both theoretical and practical approaches to this complex question. Several delegations stressed the importance of work in the area of health claims in order to prevent misleading the consumer; it was recalled that the CCFL had the main responsibility for discussing labelling issues.
119. The Delegation of the United States pointed out that the Committee on Food Labelling was still in the process of considering the definitions and requirements for the use of health claims, and that it would be premature to proceed further with the development of scientific criteria for health related claims as long as those recommendations were not finalized or further advanced. The Secretariat informed the Committee that the last session of the CCFL had revised the recommendations on the use of health claims, for integration into the Guidelines for Use of Health and Nutrition Claims, and that the text had been returned to Step 3 for further comments and consideration by the next session of the Committee (May 2001)[18]
120. The Committee agreed to inform the Committee on Food Labelling that there was an agreement in principle on the possibility and opportunity of developing criteria on the scientific basis of health claims and that the Committee was prepared to proceed with this work when the definition of health claims had been further developed. The Committee noted that the work undertaken so far and reflected in the working document would be used as a basis for further work as necessary.
