Abstract

This paper presents an analysis of the underlying assumptions and choices of the European regulatory process for health claims. The latter are scientifically substantiated statements, usually in the form of food labels, regarding the health benefits that a food may confer upon its consumer. We show that the European regulator (the European Food Safety Authority, EFSA) has adopted a particular construction (or definition) of a ‘standard consumer’ of foods with health claims, as well as chosen to give preeminent importance to one particular objective of this regulation (protecting consumers from false claims). EFSA’s choices of standards of proof (establishment of causality between food intake and desired outcome) and scientific methodology (randomized controlled trials) are coherent with this objective and the adopted definition of the consumer. We argue that it is not clear if consumers will react to the regulation as intended by the regulator, due to the possibility that only a fraction of consumers actually correspond to the regulator’s definition of a standard consumer of foods with health claims. We conclude that only empirical research on actual consumer uptake of the EU regulation would allow for an assessment of its effectiveness.

摘要

本文分析了欧洲健康声明监管程序的基本假设和选择。后者是经过科学证实的声明，通常以食品标签的形式，关于食品可能为其消费者带来的健康益处。我们表明，欧洲监管机构（欧洲食品安全局，EFSA）已经采用了具有健康声明的食品“标准消费者”的特定结构（或定义），并选择对这一特定目标给予突出的重视。监管（保护消费者免受虚假声明）。EFSA 选择的证据标准（确定食物摄入量和预期结果之间的因果关系）和科学方法（随机对照试验）与这一目标和所采用的消费者定义相一致。我们认为尚不清楚消费者是否会按照监管机构的意图对法规做出反应，因为可能只有一小部分消费者实际上符合监管机构对具有健康声明的食品标准消费者的定义。我们得出的结论是，只有对消费者实际接受欧盟法规的实证研究才能对其有效性进行评估。