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EFSA and water: some clarifications from EFBW

Bill Bruce18 Nov 2011

The press has misinterpreted a list of health claims from the European Food Safety Authority, by concluding that EFSA was challenging the role of water in the context of hydration. In fact nothing could be further from the truth!

On 16 November 2011 the European Commission published the list of health claims made on foods and referring to the reduction of disease risk (EU No 1170/​2011) rejected in previous months by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA).

Among those claims was a claim related to the role of water in the prevention of dehydration filed earlier this year by two German scientists. At the time, the claim had to be rejected by EFSA because it was filed under the wrong legal provision (Article 14 of Regulation 1924/​2006/​EC instead of Article 13). In short, Article 14 deals with diseases and illnesses whereas dehydration was not regarded by EFSA as a disease.

The press has misinterpreted the publication in the Official Journal by concluding that EFSA was challenging the role of water in the context of hydration. In fact nothing could be further from the truth!

EFSA, a strong supporter of water

In two recent scientific opinions, EFSA underlined the crucial role of water:

  • In its scientific opinion on Dietary Reference Values for Water dated March 2010, EFSA stated that “Water is essential for practically all functions of the body…” and that … “A water intake which balances losses and thereby assures adequate hydration of body tissues is essential for health and life”.   EFSA recommends a total water intake of 2.0 litres a day for adult women and 2.5 litres a day for adult men, under moderate conditions of activity and temperature.  
  • In April 2011, EFSA also acknowledged the role of water ‘in the maintenance of normal physical and cognitive functions’ and in ‘the maintenance of normal thermoregulation’ and delivered a favourable opinion for the use of those two claims.

Water, a key role to play towards health

From a public health perspective, water has a key role to play towards a healthy diet, especially taking into account growing diabetes and obesity problems. Water should therefore be promoted and EFSA’s recent work goes clearly in that direction.

The European Federation of Bottled Waters fully supports EFSA’s efforts in promoting water. Without additives or calories, bottled water offers a truly natural and healthy choice which enables to stay hydrated throughout the day.

About EFBW

EFBW is the voice of the European bottled water industry. It raises awareness on the work the sector does to ensure that naturally sourced waters offer a high quality, pure and convenient way to hydrate, and represents a sustainable and responsible choice for European citizens. The federation represents more than 600 bottled water producers with approximately 158,000 direct employees.

Source: EFBW

Your comments (3)

AlecRawls said on 20 Nov, 2011:

As seen in the excerpt above, EFSA’s ruling ends by declaring the health claim unauthorised, meaning disallowed, which would not be the case if they had ruled that it was not actually a health claim. So everything in the clarification is just a fraud. It seems they got embarrassed when people noticed how stupid their ruling was and concocted a completely dishonest excuse.

This critique of the EFSA’s ‘clarification’: is crossposted at Watt’s Up With That?

AlecRawls said on 20 Nov, 2011:

Here are the key parts of the ruling:

  • (1) Pursuant to Regulation (EC) No 1924/​2006 health claims made on foods are prohibited unless they are authorised by the Commission in accordance with that Regulation and included in a list of permitted claims.
  • (6) … the applicant proposed water loss in tissues or reduced water content in tissues as risk factors of dehydration. On the basis of the data presented, the Authority concluded in its opinion received by the Commission and the Member States on 16 February 2011 that the proposed risk factors are measures of water depletion and thus are measures of the disease. Accordingly, as a risk factor in the development of a disease is not shown to be reduced, the claim does not comply with the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 1924/​2006 and it should not be authorised.

http://eur-lex.europa.eu/LexUriServ/LexUriServ.do?uri=OJ:L:2011:299:0001:0003:EN:PDF

AlecRawls said on 20 Nov, 2011:

This ‘clarification’ grossly misrepresents EFSA’s actual ruling. It asserts that EFSA issued a pro-​forma rejection of the proposed health claim on the grounds that dehydration is not recognised as a disease, leaving the implication that since no actual health claim was made, there would be no prohibition on making it. The ruling itself, however, quite clearly does accept that dehydration is a disease. Their actual grounds for rejecting the proposed claim was a bizarre assessment that the claim does not address a risk factor for the disease, but only a measure of the disease, and hence is not a valid claim about reduction of a risk factor.

This is incredibly stupid. Failure to drink enough water is not a risk factor for dehydration? Just to try to make this distinction is nonsensical enough, but then they get it wrong to boot, on the most trivially simple matter: can drinking water help prevent dehydration? Here are the key parts of the ruling: (continued)

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