Symposium on "The challenge of translating nutrition research into public health nutrition". Session 4: Challenges facing the food industry in innovating for health. Regulatory challenges and opportunities for food innovation.

The primary role of the extensive and complex modern food legislation is to protect the consumer. Providing a framework for industry and enabling free trade are secondary aims. In the EU the 2006 Regulation on nutrition and health claims made on foods was adopted in December 2006. This Regulation defines detailed lists of permitted claims with precise conditions, requires foods making claims to meet specific nutrient profiles and requires the submission of a dossier for approval of new health claims. Nutrient profiles and an initial list of existing health claims will not be agreed until January 2009 and January 2010 respectively. The uncertainty about profiles and the initial list of claims as well as the prescriptive nature of the Regulation will have a major impact, some negative but some positive, on food innovation. Worldwide legislation on nutrition and health claims continues to develop. The current paper also provides an outline of some other key pieces of European legislation that affect food innovation. However, currently, all this legislation remains in development and up-to-date information can be sought from the reference material provided.