“The European Union is cracking down on foods that advertise health benefits without scientific backing, potentially undermining a strategy increasingly important to the food industry,” Matthew Dalton of the Wall Street Journal reported February 5. He noted the strong marketplace growth of products bearing “healthy” labels.

The trend is running afoul of EFSA, the European Food Safety Authority, which is insisting that health claims meet standards asserted to be higher than those of FDA in the U.S. “With few exceptions,” Dalton explains, EFSA approved health claims must be based on “convincing” evidence from human clinical trials with animal studies used only for backup support.

Only 9 of the first 43 claims that have been reviewed have been approved over the first five months of the program, putting EFSA hopelessly behind its hope to evaluate 4,000 health claims by this time next year. Many otherwise “healthy” products are disqualified because they contain “excess” sugar, fat or salt so “they can't claim health benefits, no matter how many healthy ingredients they boast,” Dalton reminds.