Revolution in attitudes to food

RAPIDLY-CHANGING consumer attitudes is driving a global food revolution, a seminar in Dublin will be told today.

Research by An Bord Bia shows that the functional food sector (foods that have a health content as well as a nutritional base) is a €40 billion market. Ireland has 500 companies in the food and drinks sector and of those, 35 are involved in the functional food category to varying degrees.

Of those, 17 are active in the manufacture of ingredients going into products, and the remainder make prepared food and drink products in the functional food category.

But delegates attending Bord Bia’s conference in Dublin will also be told of a revolution in labelling category under consideration in the EU.

When operational, it will demand of companies to back up claims that their products will do what is claimed by them or implied by the labelling.

EU Commissioner David Byrne will inform delegates of the sea-change taking place in the EU in this critical area. The Commissioner for Health and Consumer Protection is committed to stamp out dubiously branded products.

It will no longer be possible, under the proposed legislative changes, to label product 95% fat-free suggesting health claims without first proving it, Bord Bia chief executive Michael Duffy said yesterday in a preview of today’s conference.

The conference is called Health and Nutrition: Hearts and Mind, which will also be addressed by a number of other key speakers, including Gill Fine, head of food and health in Sainsbury’s.

In future, labels will be prevented from alluding to health benefits of a product unless the product “has been proven to achieve such ends,” said Mr Duffy.

One in four consumers in Britain buys functional foods. They are defined as products that make specific health claims of some kind on the packaging or in advertising. Normally they can be used to supplement diets for specific consumer needs such as product eaten to help prevent heart disease.