Needs and difficulties of food businesses in the substantiation of health and nutrition claims

The food industry has been struggling with existing guidance on how to prepare health claim dossiers. Hence the EU-funded project PATHWAY-27 seeks to provide a more tailored guidance. Within this project, robust guidelines for the food industry will be developed. The guidelines will be applicable to bioactives and bioactive enriched foods in general, to facilitate health claim documentation and dossiers. Based on a questionnaire, information on the needs and difficulties of the food industry in reaching the requirements established by the national and EU authorities (EFSA) was gathered. Particular emphasis was placed on scientific, economic, technical and technological barriers.