The new Food Standards Code Standard 1.2.7 – Nutrition, Health and Related Claims – comes into effect in less than one year’s time, on 18 January 2016.
While this still seems like a while away, remember that there is no stock-in-trade allowance under this Standard. This means that all food products for sale on 18 January 2016 must comply with the new Standard from that day.
What do you need to do now?
To ensure you do not have non-compliant product on shelf on 18 January next year, you need to review your current packaging and make any necessary changes.
What does the Standard cover?
The Standard regulates the making of nutrition content claims, general level health claims and high level health claims.
A nutrition content claim is claim made about the presence or absence of a nutrient in a food product – eg, good source of fibre, low fat, low carbohydrates etc. Schedule 1 of the Standard sets out the conditions that must be satisfied before a nutrition content claim can be made about a food product. If you want to make a nutrition content claim about a food property that isn’t listed in the Standard, the most you can say is that the food does or does not contain the property, and if it does contain the property, how much it contains.
A general level health claim refers to a nutrient or substance in a food and its effect on a health function. For example: calcium is good for bones and teeth. General level health claims must not refer to a serious disease or to a biomarker of a serious disease.
A high level health claim refers to a nutrient or substance in a food and its relationship to a serious disease or to a biomarker of a serious disease. For example: eating more fruit and vegetables helps to reduce the risk of coronary heart disease.
The food to which either a general level or high level health claim relates must meet the Nutritional Profile Scoring Criterion (NPSC), which is set out in the Standard.
Once you establish that the food satisfies the food meets the NPSC, you need to ensure the health claim is made in accordance with the conditions in Schedule 2 (high level health claims) or Schedule 3 (general level health claims). There are over 200 pre-approved food-health relationships in the Standard for general level health claims. There are 13 pre-approved foo-health relationships in the Standard for high level health claims.
If you want to make a general level health claim that does not appear in the Food Standards Code, you can self-substantiate that claim. The process for self-substantiating is set out in the Standard.
You cannot make a high level health claim outside of the Standard.
Health claims must be accompanied by a dietary context statement.
If you need help to review your food marketing materials or to understand more about how to comply with this Standard, you can contact Ampersand Legal.
