{"id":45877,"date":"2023-05-23T09:20:00","date_gmt":"2023-05-23T09:20:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/?post_type=articles&p=45877"},"modified":"2023-05-23T10:57:40","modified_gmt":"2023-05-23T10:57:40","slug":"swedish-food-agency-says-probiotics-cannot-be-used-as-category-name-for-food-supplements","status":"publish","type":"articles","link":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/article\/swedish-food-agency-says-probiotics-cannot-be-used-as-category-name-for-food-supplements\/","title":{"rendered":"Swedish\u00a0Food Agency says \u2018probiotics\u2019 cannot be used as category name for food supplements"},"content":{"rendered":"
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In April 2023, the Swedish National Food Agency reviewed whether the word \u2018probiotics\u2019 may be used for food supplements containing a certain type of bacteria. The agency\u2019s assessment is that the word may not be used if there is no approved health claim about probiotic microorganisms. This means the National Food Agency stands by its previous assessment.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probiotics are defined by FAO\/WHO as \u201clive microorganisms which when administered in adequate amounts confer a health benefit on the host\u201d. In the European Commission Guidance document on the implementation of the Claims Regulation, the term \u2018probiotic\u2019 is considered a health claim, because this term is deemed to include an implied health benefit. Therefore, the word \u2018probiotics\u2019 can only be used in combination with an approved authorised specific health claim, despite the fact that this term is broadly used all over the world.<\/p>\n

Last year, the Swedish industry organisation Svensk Egenv\u00e5rd asked the Swedish National Food Agency to review its assessment of the use of the word \u2018probiotics\u2019 for food supplements.<\/p>\n

The question from Svensk Egenv\u00e5rd was whether probiotics could constitute a \u2018category name\u2019, i.e. mandatory information in labelling that describes what characterises food supplements. \u2018Lactic acid bacteria\u2019 is the category name currently used for these products.<\/p>\n

In its statement, the Swedish National Food Agency says it considers that even if \u2018probiotics\u2019 were to be used as a category name, it would still be a health claim. Therefore, the word cannot be used in either the labelling or the marketing of food supplements if there is no approved health claim about probiotic microorganisms.<\/p>\n

The conclusion is that the Swedish National Food Agency stands by its previous assessment that \u2018probiotics\u2019 may not be used as a category name for food supplements.<\/p>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/div>\n <\/section>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":34173,"template":"","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"","_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":""},"article_category":[],"class_list":["post-45877","articles","type-articles","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles\/45877","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/articles"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/articles"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/34173"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=45877"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"article_category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/setterwalls.se\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/article_category?post=45877"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}