Consumers are increasingly aware of the importance of diet in human health and they preferably choose functional food products.

Pr. Montana Camara Hurtado and her team at UCM Madrid, have published a review entitled "An international regulatory review of food health-related claims in functional food products labeling" focused on describing the current status of the international regulatory framework for health-related claims in functional food products and the state of the art regarding these products market focusing on those with health-related claims. Specific regulation must control the use of these claims in the labeling of functional products.

The main findings of the review are:

• Claims in functional products labeling could influence consumers purchase decisions.

• Claims in Europe, US and Japan are similar in nature but not in its regulation.

• Functional food products usually include more than one health claim on its labeling.

• A specific regulatory framework must exist to control the use of claims in labeling.

This review could help consumers for making better-informed food decisions; food industry in marketing its products with a focus on international trade; and scientists in order to put in value their research work.

The full study, published under a Creative Commons license, is available fre of charge here.  

Pr. Montana Camara will present some of these results with emphasis on the impact of Front-of-package nutrition labelling systems (FoPL) on tomato products during the session on Consumption Revival by Health Promotion during the 16th International Symposium on Processing Tomato and 14th World Processing Tomato Congress in San Juan on 10 November 2020.