The policy priorities of the sports and active nutrition sector for new EU policy makers were unveiled by the award-winning trade association, the European Specialist Sports Nutrition Alliance (ESSNA).
With a new European Commission expected to be fully operational in the coming weeks, ESSNA has launched a comprehensive manifesto outlining nine priority areas for European policymakers to focus on in the next 5 years.
Each priority area sends a clear message to policy makers on what is needed to ensure a regulatory framework that allows for innovation and the continuous growth of the sector while ensuring consumers are empowered to make informed choices about their health and well-being.
This includes promoting greater evidence-based recognition of sportspeople’s specific nutritional needs within this framework, as well as harmonisation and alignment of certain rules covering the marketing of sports foods and novel products across Europe and with other international jurisdictions, including the UK.
To achieve this, ESSNA calls on the new European policy makers to
- recognise the important role played by sports foods in catering for the nutritional needs of people engaged in physical activity in any future review of food labelling rules
- ensure that health and nutrition claims positively assessed by the European Food Safety Authority have conditions of use specifying their use only when the consumer undertakes a certain degree of physical activity
- support a more streamlined novel foods approval system that enables innovation while supporting consumer safety
- recognise the difference between unhealthy and processed foods and adopt a science-based, harmonised and non-discriminatory approach in any future legislation around ultra-processed foods to help consumers make informed choices
- ensure appropriate and harmonised implementation of recycling laws before considering new initiatives and their impact
- increase enforcement of regulations concerning non-compliance to protect consumers and the industry and ensure harmonisation across Member States in enforcing these legislations
- promote efforts and initiatives to tackle inadvertent doping and ensure consumer safety in a harmonised way across all Member States
- ensure a fair and harmonised Single Market
- safeguard consumer safety while supporting and promoting innovations in Artificial Intelligence
The Chair of ESSNA, Luca Bucchini, said: “Our industry is ever expanding, helping athletes and fitness enthusiasts in improving their health and achieving their performance goals."
"We launch our priorities as the EU enters a new policy cycle, following the elections in the European Parliament and the formation of a new European Commission."
"We urge the policy makers that took office to create a balanced regulatory environment for sports foods that fosters innovation while ensuring that Europeans can make informed and healthy choices”.