Directive 2008/100 - Amendment of Council Directive 90/496/EEC on nutrition labelling for foodstuffs as regards recommended daily allowances, energy conversion factors and definitions - Main contents

EN

Official Journal of the European Union

L 285/9

Directive 90/496/EEC specifies that fibre should be defined.

Conditions for nutrition claims such as ‘source of fibre’ or ‘high fibre’ are laid down in the Annex to Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 20 December 2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods (2).

For reasons of clarity and coherence with other Community legislation that refers to that notion, it is necessary to provide a definition of ‘fibre’.

The definition of fibre should take into account relevant work by the Codex Alimentarius and the statement related to dietary fibre, expressed on the 6 July 2007, by the European Food Safety Authority Scientific Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies.

Fibre has been traditionally consumed as plant material and has one or more beneficial physiological effects such as: decrease intestinal transit time, increase stool bulk, is fermentable by colonic microflora, reduce blood total cholesterol, reduce blood LDL cholesterol levels, reduce post-prandial blood glucose, or reduce blood insulin levels. Recent scientific evidence has shown that similar beneficial physiological effects may be obtained from other carbohydrate polymers that are not digestible and not naturally occurring in the food as consumed. Therefore it is appropriate that the definition of fibre should include carbohydrate polymers with one or more beneficial physiological effects.

The carbohydrate polymers of plant origin that meet the definition of fibre may be closely associated in the plant with lignin or other non-carbohydrate components such as phenolic compounds, waxes, saponins, phytates, cutin, phytosterols. These substances when closely associated with carbohydrate polymers of plant origin and extracted with the carbohydrate polymers for analysis of fibre may be considered as fibre. However, when separated from the carbohydrate polymers and added to a food these substances should not be considered as fibre.

In order to take account of new scientific and technological developments, there is a need to amend the list of energy conversion factors.

The FAO report of a technical workshop on food energy — methods of analysis and conversion factors indicates that 70 percent of the fibre in traditional foods is assumed to be fermentable. Therefore, it is appropriate that the average energy value for fibre should be 8 kJ/g (2 kcal/g).

Erythritol can be used in a wide variety of foods and its use is, among others, as a replacement for nutrients such as sugar where lower energy value is desired.

Erythritol is a polyol, and according to the current rules as provided for in Article 5(1) of Directive 90/496/EEC, its energy would be calculated using the conversion factor for polyols, namely 10 kJ/g (2,4 kcal/g). Using this energy conversion factor would not fully inform the consumer about the reduced energy value of a product achieved by the use of erythritol in its manufacture. The Scientific Committee on Food in its opinion on erythritol,...