What is Nutrient profile and what is “healthy enough”?

In the Regulation (EC) no 1924/2006 and (EU) no 1169/2011 one can read that the information on the package shall not be misleading. For example saying that a product possesses special characteristics when in fact all similar products possess such characteristics is considered misleading.

It is not allowed to mask the general nutrient content of the product and it is not allowed to highlight health benefits by using claims on a product that is not considered healthy as a whole. 

But what is considered as "not healthy as a whole"? When the legislation came into force 2006 the idea was to have a harmonized nutrient profile in place some years later. The Commission should establish specific nutrient profiles, including exemptions, which food or certain categories of food must comply with in order to bear nutrition or health claims and the conditions for the use of nutrition or health claims for foods or categories of foods with respect to the nutrient profiles. The quantities of certain nutrients and other substances contained in the food, such as fat, saturated fatty acids, trans-fatty acids, sugars and salt/sodium should been taken into account. Now many years later there is still no nutrient profile in place. How are each member state handling this on a national level one might wonder.

When looking at products in the Swedish market a frozen pizza had several nutrition claims on the package. We asked several Food Inspectors both in Sweden and in the Nordic countries to see what they thought about that.

In our platform, you can read the answers from the Food Inspectors, and see how different countries interpret this in different ways.

Book a demo with us today to learn more.