The Turmeric Co founder Thomas Robson-Kanu has called on the government to overhaul the Great Britain Nutrition and Health Claims Register to reflect growing interest in functional food and drink products.
Speaking at The Grocer Health Summit yesterday (15 September), Robson-Kanu said the GB NHC Register had failed to keep pace with the speed of innovation, and the strength of shopper demand for products with added health benefits.
“Looking at the claims register… you would have to argue that a lot of the claims are outdated,” he said. “There is an on-hold claims register that hasn’t been updated for over two decades.
“There has been so much advancement, so much progression in terms of nutrition and food and supplementation, whether it be from protein to fibre, to things that reduce inflammation or support immunity. How can there not be any update to that regulation and guidance?
“For me it’s the biggest gap for us to bridge, and if regulation doesn’t evolve then consumers will take things into their own hands.”
The GB NHC Register was created following the UK’s exit from the EU on 1 January 2021, and sets out the authorised health claims that can be used in commercial communications and food labelling.
Brands wishing to make claims must ensure their product meets the specific usage conditions set out by the register. Those that fail to adhere to these conditions in their marketing face investigation by the Advertising Standards Authority.
ASA rebuke
The Turmeric Co was itself censured by the ASA earlier this year for republishing claims that implied its products could help to prevent, treat or cure human disease.
A page on The Turmeric Co’s website featured testimonials for its mixed box of turmeric juice shots in which selected words had been blurred. The blurred words were surrounded by references to being “cured”, “halved”, or “very much reduced”.
Meanwhile, text read: “Blurry here. Crystal clear on Trustpilot. Regulations mean we can’t show everything on this page, but you can read the lot over there.”
However, the ASA considered that the blurring did not remove the overall meaning of the testimonials. Consumers were “effectively invited to fill in the omitted wording from the context of each statement”, it said.
Although no specific health conditions or diseases were named in the ad, the testimonials were “likely to be understood as claims that the Turmeric Co’s food supplements could prevent, treat or cure human disease”, it concluded.
Current legislation ‘unhelpful’
Other speakers on stage with Robson-Kanu included Field Doctor CCO and co-founder Alex Brooks and Gut & Glory founder Toby Morris.
Both reiterated the importance of having a framework in place to regulate functional claims, but agreed legislation needed to reflect the reality of modern-day functional NPD.
Current legislation was “not all that helpful in certain ways”, said Brooks.
“It says things like ‘does your product deliver 100g of iron in a single portion? You don’t eat our food as a 100g portion, you eat it as a full meal, and there is plenty of iron in that product. So I think the legislation needs to move on.”
Morris, meanwhile, said it was very easy for brands to drift into over-claiming, risking compliance and trust.
“It’s a tricky line to walk,” he said. “We’ve struggled with it…because you end up overdoing it.
“Fundamentally it comes down to trust and marketing building that trust with the consumer, and that works both ways.
“If we’re making claims on the pack, we need to be able to substantiate them. And as a consumer, I need to be able to validate them as I buy.”
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