Nutrition profiles and public health - A view from the European agri-food industry on the use of the concept of nutrient profiles within the Regulation of Nutrition and Health Claims

This article aims to present the position of the European food and drink industry in relation to the setting up and use of nutrient profiles to limiting the communication of health benefits of specific foods to the consumer based on the belief that such claims could. mask the overall nutritional composition of a food and thus lead the consumer to make inappropriate choices for his diet.. The argumentation is based on the following principles: - claims are part of consumer information and information in itself is worthless without consumer education to enable them to understand the information; - consumer understanding is critical to lead them to change their behaviour which is our ultime goal. This goal cannot be reached if tools such as profiles are used in the legislative framework leading to less information being provided to consumer - in setting the profiling scheme, it is critical to take into account the level of feasibility to meet the profiles through innovation. Only under such condition will the application of profiles be ultimtely of benefit to the consumer. To achieve this, it is essential that food business operators are involved in the seting up of the profiling scheme. The EU food and drink industry is an important pillar of the European economy, serving approximately 500 million consumers with a vast variety of safe and high quality products. It is the largest manufacturing sector in Europe, with a turnover of Euro 870 billion in 2006, and provides direct employment to over 4 million people.