Therapeutic food claims: a global perspective

Area of Science:

• Nutritional Science
• Regulatory Science

Background:

• Medical foods and foods for special medical purposes are designed for managing chronic diseases under medical supervision.
• Global regulatory frameworks for approving health claims associated with these foods exhibit significant variation.

Purpose of the Study:

• To examine how global regulatory authorities handle health claims for foods and food-derived products.
• To understand the role of specially formulated foods in disease prevention and management.

Main Methods:

• Analysis of regulatory approaches to food health claims across different countries.
• Review of activities within CODEX Alimentarius concerning therapeutic and health claims for food categories.

Main Results:

• The CODEX Alimentarius plays a key role in standardizing nutrition labeling, food safety, and analyzing health claims.
• Recent CODEX activities focus on the formulation of foods for special dietary uses and special medical purposes for specific patient populations.

Conclusions:

• Specially formulated foods can contribute to disease prevention and mitigation.
• Understanding global regulatory strategies for food health claims is crucial for their effective implementation.