5th Annual Workshop on Botanical Food Supplements
15 December 2009
The fifth annual workshop on botanical food supplements was organised by the European Botanical Forum in Brussels on 15 December 2009.
The workshop was attended by experts from national authorities, academia, and industry. Among the speakers were European Commission official Lars Korsholm, who presented the ongoing work on nutrition and health claims; Juliane Kleiner of the European Food Safety Authority, who gave an overview of the EFSA claims assessment work; Patrick Coppens, EBF Secretary General, who highlighted the consequences of the claims legislation for botanical food supplements. Also speaking were Prof. Vitorio Silano, chair or the EFSA Scientific Committee on the EFSA guidance relating to the safety of botanical food supplements; Penny Viner of the EBF who updated the meeting on the EMEA work in relation to traditional herbal medicinal products; and Jean Savigny of the Keller and Heckman law firm on the coexistence of herbal medicinal products and botanical food supplements. Finally, Prof. Patrizia Restani of the Università Degli Studi Di Milano introduced the PlantLIBRA project.
The workshop covered 3 sessions:
• Claims for botanicals under food law
• The borderline between food supplements and medicinal products
• Safety and Quality of botanicals used in Food Supplements
The scientific substantiation of health claims was the central topic of a panel discussion to which participated Prof Hans Biesalski (University of Hohenheim), Prof. Renger Witkamp (University of Wageningen), Prof. Robert Anton (University of Strassbourg), Gert Krabichler (European Responsible Nutrition Alliance) and Patrick Coppens (European Boitanical Forum)
The presentations of the speakers can be found here:
The workshop was attended by experts from national authorities, academia, and industry. Among the speakers were European Commission official Lars Korsholm, who presented the ongoing work on nutrition and health claims; Juliane Kleiner of the European Food Safety Authority, who gave an overview of the EFSA claims assessment work; Patrick Coppens, EBF Secretary General, who highlighted the consequences of the claims legislation for botanical food supplements. Also speaking were Prof. Vitorio Silano, chair or the EFSA Scientific Committee on the EFSA guidance relating to the safety of botanical food supplements; Penny Viner of the EBF who updated the meeting on the EMEA work in relation to traditional herbal medicinal products; and Jean Savigny of the Keller and Heckman law firm on the coexistence of herbal medicinal products and botanical food supplements. Finally, Prof. Patrizia Restani of the Università Degli Studi Di Milano introduced the PlantLIBRA project.
The workshop covered 3 sessions:
• Claims for botanicals under food law
• The borderline between food supplements and medicinal products
• Safety and Quality of botanicals used in Food Supplements
The scientific substantiation of health claims was the central topic of a panel discussion to which participated Prof Hans Biesalski (University of Hohenheim), Prof. Renger Witkamp (University of Wageningen), Prof. Robert Anton (University of Strassbourg), Gert Krabichler (European Responsible Nutrition Alliance) and Patrick Coppens (European Boitanical Forum)
The presentations of the speakers can be found here:
- The assessment of botanical article 13 claims: scientific and regulatory considerations - Patrik Coppens
- EFSA assessment of health claims - Juliane Kleiner
- Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 – nutrition and health claims on foods - Lars Korsholm
- 7th Framework Program on risk-benefit assessment of botanical food supplements - Patrizia Restani
- The Co-existence of botanicals in food supplements and medicinal products - Jean Savigny
- UPDATE ON SAFETY EVALUATION OF BOTANICAL INGREDIENTS FOR FOOD SUPPLEMENTS - Vittorio Silano
- THE EMEA’S APPROACH TO TRADITIONAL HERBAL MEDICINAL PRODUCTS - Penny Viner