IFT Annual Meeting & Food Expo In Brief

Cantox expert advises on claim support: FDA's "competent and reliable scientific evidence" standard for structure/function claims appears less rigorous than its "significant scientific agreement" requirement for authorized or qualified disease-risk reduction claims, but is not actually so, regulatory consultant Kathy Musa-Veloso says. "Don't be deceived by this competent and reliable scientific evidence standard," she said July 19 at the Institute of Food Technologists Annual Meeting & Food Expo in Chicago. "In our view, it's really just a synonym for significant scientific agreement." Musa-Veloso, associate director of Cantox's Food & Nutrition Group, said even though industry stakeholders are surprised at the European Food Safety Authority's rejection rate for proposed nutrient claims, most structure/function claims in the U.S. likewise would be rejected (1"The Tan Sheet" June 7, 2010). FDA does not require firms to submit their products' structure/function claims for approval and clearly some product claims on the market are not substantiated. "If the food industry wants to encapsulate bioactives and claim efficacy akin to pharmaceuticals, [regulators] are expecting the same level of scientific data - robust clinical studies - which for the most part, do not exist," Musa-Veloso added during a session on health claims