RESUMO
Health claims potentially represent an opportunity for firms to engage in product differentiation and thereby induce investment into R&D and innovation in the food sector. The Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 (NHCR) aims at protecting and promoting innovation as one of its objectives. However, existing studies indicate that this regulation may create several challenges for innovation in the food sector. To this end, we review the challenges related to the NHCR (Article 13.1) and its impact on innovation. Extant literature suggests that companies face challenges related to changing list of ingredients, missing transparency, wording of claims, limited financial resources, limited R&D resources, switching product categories and abandoning the functional foods sector. Moreover, current studies imply that so far the NHCR (in specific Article 13.1) does not seem to encourage innovation in the EU food sector.
Assuntos
Suplementos Nutricionais , Embalagem de Alimentos , Alimento Funcional , Legislação sobre Alimentos , Política Nutricional , Pesquisa Biomédica/economia , Pesquisa Biomédica/tendências , Suplementos Nutricionais/efeitos adversos , Suplementos Nutricionais/economia , Suplementos Nutricionais/normas , Difusão de Inovações , União Europeia , Aditivos Alimentares/efeitos adversos , Aditivos Alimentares/economia , Aditivos Alimentares/normas , Embalagem de Alimentos/legislação & jurisprudência , Embalagem de Alimentos/normas , Indústria de Processamento de Alimentos/economia , Indústria de Processamento de Alimentos/legislação & jurisprudência , Alimento Funcional/efeitos adversos , Alimento Funcional/economia , Alimento Funcional/normas , Humanos , Legislação sobre Alimentos/tendências , Política Nutricional/legislação & jurisprudência , Política Nutricional/tendênciasRESUMO
Literature suggests that despite its positive aim of promoting innovation, the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006 (NHCR) may bring along several compliance challenges, which might affect innovation in the EU food sector. This study investigates the challenges faced by companies to comply with the NHCR (specifically Article 13.1) and their impact on innovation. To this end, we conducted an online survey with 105 companies involved in the EU food sector. Results indicate that companies perceive wording of claims, missing transparency and limited financial resources as major challenges to comply with the NHCR (Article 13.1). Companies reported not to have increased their R&D expenditure or innovation activities after the NHCR (Article 13.1) was implemented. Thus, this study highlights specific compliance challenges related to the NHCR (Article 13.1) and indicates that currently, the regulation does not seem to have fostered innovation in the EU food sector.
