European Botanical Forum Addresses Quality, Safety Issues

BRUSSELS—Government officials, academics and herbal industry members met in early December here for the 4th annual European Botanical Forum (EBF) workshop. Among the issues on the table were health claims, product safety and quality, regulatory guidance on functional food products, and the mutual recognition regulation.

Speakers included European Commission official Idaira Robayna-Alfonso, who highlighted the new mutual recognition Regulation; Penny Viner of the UK Herbal Forum, who gave an overview of the challenges for companies implementing the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Product Directive (THMPD); Patrick Coppens, EBF Secretary General, who gave an overview of the key regulatory aspects relating to botanical food supplements; and Bernard Bottex from EFSA’s scientific committee, who informed the participants of the Authority’s work in relation to the safety of botanicals and explained the work EFSA is undertaking in relation to claims.

Patrick Coppens, secretary general of EBF, part of the European Responsible Nutrition Alliance (ERNA), said: “The meeting highlighted a number of issues, not least the concern that with EFSA applying pharmaceutical-type criteria for claims evaluations it is not considering the specificities of botanicals used in food supplements. These comprise the complexity to characterize botanicals which often have a long-standing traditional usage and other evidence of efficacy. EBF will continue to encourage debate among industry, governments and the scientific community on scientific and regulatory issues relating to botanical food supplements, not only for the substantiation of claims, but also to determine the optimum methodology for the safety assessment of botanicals and to clarify the borderline between the medicinal and food use of botanicals.”