Yesterday (16 May) the Commission published a list of 222 health claims that have been given positive opinions by the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) and approved for use across the EU.

It simultaneously published a list of rejected claims. As from the beginning of December 2012 all claims that are not authorised – or already under consideration – will be prohibited.

The Commission says that by regulating health claims on food labeling in this way consumers will be protected by the removal of misleading claims.

John Dalli, commissioner in charge of health and consumer policy, said: “Today’s decision is the culmination of years of work and marks a major milestone in regulating health claims on food. The EU-wide list of permitted health claims will be available on-line and will allow consumers everywhere in the EU to make an informed choice. Non-scientifically backed claims will have to be removed from the market after a short transition period.”

But industry groups, who have long-argued that EFSA’s assessment process for general function claims (Article 13.1 claims under the Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation) uses inappropriate pharmaceutical-type criteria, say the publication of the list is premature.

Cynthia Rousselot, director of European policy at the European Federation of Associations of Health Product Manufacturers (EHPM), said: “We have consistently stated that the approach adopted by the EFSA for the assessment of Article 13.1 claims is not in line with the proportionality foreseen by the regulation and that the pharmaceutical-type criteria it is using is not appropriate for nutrition science. In light of the pending decision of the European Ombudsman (which agreed to investigate the claims assessment process), we believe the publication of the rejected list is premature. Non-authorised claims should be put on hold until this issue is clarified and resolved.”

EHPM also argues that the six-month transition period given for rejected Article 13.1 claims is too short and impractical for food supplement manufacturers, many of which have products with a shelf life of up to three years.

“This short timeframe will result in significant costs for SMEs because of required label changes and a lack of time to sell through their stock,” said Rousselot. “An 18-month transition period would be more proportionate. We trust that the national authorities will take into consideration the shelf life of our products when determining the timeframe for their withdrawal from the market.”

• A list of permitted and rejected claims can be downloaded here.

Stalls are available to any organic producers or retailers and are free but OHTC are hoping for modest donations to their chosen charities.

• If you or your company would like to go along, please call 01823 401205, or email festival@organicherbtrading.com

The £3 million deal sees Dr Organic, already a multi-award winning natural beauty and body care products organisation, become a £25 million turnover Group employing 43 staff.

Originally established in 1995 by Fred Whitcomb and Steve Quinn to meet the growing consumer demand for aloe vera based health products, Optima Consumer Health Limited is a leading player in the UK natural healthcare market. It was a wholly owned subsidiary of William Ransom & Son Holdings Plc following the sale of the business by Whitcomb and Quinn in 2005.

Optima owns and markets a widely recognised portfolio of naturally focused brands such as Aloe Pura, Aloe Dent and Health Perception via a multi-channel international distribution model built around an extensive network of quality retailers, wholesalers and exclusive foreign distributors.

Fred Whitcomb comments: “Steve and I are very excited about the Optima acquisition. It is a great opportunity and we are really looking forward to returning Optima to what it once was, enhancing our customer’s sales and profitability, focusing on an unrivalled level of customer service and introducing innovative new products.” The current Bradford operation will continue to service customer needs, with sales, marketing and product development being centred in Swansea

Steve Quinn adds: “Optima is a business that we have always believed in. We wish to return to those key qualities the Optima brand was always so well known for.”

Picture shows Steve Quinn (far left) and Fred Whitcomb (far right) with the Optima team

Wimbledon-based Nelsons is used to sporting excellence with All England Lawn Tennis Club round the corner. And Central London is gearing up for more visitors than ever before including Nelsons Homeopathic Pharmacy, based in the centre of the action on Duke St W1. It’s ready for a busy Homeopathy Awareness Week as tourists flock to buy natural healthcare products, pick up homeopathic prescriptions and seek advice from their in-store experts.

Nelsons was keen to discover how athletes have used homeopathy to help them achieve their goals and found out that Olympic 100m Champion Linford Christie (pictured), recommends homeopathic Arnica to help with sporting injuries: ‘I am a fan of arnica and recommend all the Athletes in my Street Athletics programme have it in their kit bag to help with sprains and strains.’

Jayne Torvill, legendary Olympic figure skating Gold medallist and Dancing on Ice star, also trusts Arnica:  “When I fall on the ice, I treat my bruises with arnica tablets or cream, which seems to help”. And it doesn’t stop there. Homeopathy fans include Olympic tennis superstar Boris Becker, two time javelin Olympic medallist Kate Schmidt and our very own football icon and Team GB hopeful, David Beckham.

Susanne Haar, pharmacist based at Nelsons Homeopathic Pharmacy recommends homeopathic remedies for sporting injuries: ‘Arnica is one of the most common homeopathic remedies to try with sporting injuries as it helps ease symptoms of sprains, strains and bruising, but other remedies can complement arnica to aid healing. Ruta grav is a remedy to try for shin injuries because it helps the healing of bruises. It is also suitable for strain injuries. Rhus tox is another remedy to consider for sprains. Try Rhus tox if the sprain seems stiff and painful during or after rest, typically when you first wake up in the morning.’

• Homeopathy Awareness Week takes place from 14th – 21st June 2012. Visit  www.HealThroughHomeopathy.com for more information.

This week a secret venue in central London played host to a very special event, launching year two of an EU and industry funded consumer campaign, ‘Organic, naturally different’. The evening consisted of a lively organic debate chaired by TV presenter and household name, John Craven and dinner cooked by the pioneering MsMarmitelover, Kerstin Rodgers, who launched one of the first supperclubs in the UK.

The organic industry used the debate to challenge the tired stereotype of organic food being only available to the elite or eco-minded.

In order to confront this persistent stereotyoping, journalists and industry representatives joined a lively debate about the many myths surrounding organic food, getting stuck into issues of price and perception. This eclectic mix of guests included Mercury award winner and rapper, Speech Debelle; co-founder of Green & Blacks, Craig Sams and award-winning Chef, Richard Bertinet.

Rather than remaining at logger heads, many sceptics and supporters left the debate concluding that supporting a ‘gold standard’ in animal welfare and environmental impact might just be worth paying that little bit extra for.

Meanwhile, the amazing MsMarmitelover cooked up a feast of organic goodies inspired by retro British recipes, from asparagus mimosa with edible flowers to a savoury and sweet selection of organic fancies.

Musician Speech Debelle commented: ‘If people knew more about the way food is treated in conventional farming, they might think that it’s worth choosing a few more organic things in their weekly shop. To me, eating organic food is not a big deal, it’s the natural choice for someone who cares about what they put in their body and the world we live in.”

Catherine Fookes, campaign manager for ‘Organic, naturally different’ said: “You can tell by the mix of people at the event and the range of opinions voiced, that the real face of organic is varied and diverse. We have an important message to tell people about organic food and that is that it can be for everyone.”

For more information on the campaign and to find out lots of fabulous giveaways of organic goodies, please visit our new website on www.organicukfood.com <http://www.organicukfood.com>  or visit us on Facebook – www.facebook.com/organicuk <http://www.facebook.com/organicuk>  and Twitter -@organicukfood.

The campaign launches today (14 May) and sets out to build on the foundations laid in Year 1 with Why I Love Organic. Objectives for Year 2 will focus on growing organic sales through a high profile media campaign. It aims to drive an uplift in sales by increasing frequency of purchase among those who are conscious but infrequent organic buyers as well as encouraging heavyweight purchasers of organic to become passionate advocates.

OTB projects that if each ‘occasional’ buyer spends £10 more per year industry will benefit from a resulting uplift in sales of £26 million.

The Year 2 campaign, ‘Organic, naturally different’ has a single-minded message focusing on naturalness. The creative approach for the campaign has been driven by research indicating that many people don’t understand the difference between organic and non-organic and therefore struggle to make a conscious decision to purchase. An edgy and humorous creative communicates the message that organic food is food as it should be, less fake and naturally different. The warm and down-to-earth conversational tone aims to explain to consumers the natural benefits of organic by highlighting the unnatural treatments of non-organic produce.

The campaign launches today with 48-sheet Crosstrack posters in key central London underground stations and is supported by digital advertising and a new facebook app – Why Choose Organic, designed to drive likes, engagement and sharing. There are also media partnerships with Mumsnet and Tesco Real Food. PR activity includes a Question Time-style organic debate hosted by John Craven with an organic dinner for guests created by Kerstin Rodgers, more widely known as ‘MsMarmiteLover’, who has been the driving force behind the underground restaurant movement in the UK and writes the successful blog, ‘The English Can Cook’.

Catherine Fookes, campaign manager from Sustain, commented, “This new campaign hones in on what makes organic food important to the individual. Our research shows people choose organic for the benefits it offers them and that’s why we’re focusing on naturalness. We’re really pleased with the reaction we’ve had from retailers and we are taking the campaign onto their websites with ads and recipe partnerships. Our Mumsnet partnership is also new and means we get right to the heart of our audience – mums.”

Anna Rosier, chair of the OTB said “We’re all dealing with tough economic conditions, and organic is certainly no exception.  The ‘Organic, naturally different’ campaign is confident, noisy and humorous and we know it’s going to help deliver the growth in sales the organic sector wants, as well as getting people debating organic.”

Adopting the ITAL standard, Rastafari for all things Pure, True and Vital, Marley Coffee focuses on organic coffee with the initial launch of three premium organic blends and one single origin coffee: Jamaica Blue Mountain (227 grams net weight) – Medium Roast – ground coffee  known for a delicate balance of floral aroma, acidity and full body; Marley Coffee One Love Organic Coffee Blend (227 grams net weight) – Medium Roast – Ground Coffee, full of floral notes and revealing hints of blueberry, cocoa and spice; Marley Coffee One Love Organic Coffee Blend (227 grams net weight) – Medium Roast – Ground Coffee, a well-rounded coffee tantalizes the palate, leaving a profound cherry finish.

• For more information – and retailer contacts – visit www.marleycoffee.eu.

“GM Freeze is delighted that MEPs have so conclusively voted to end the practice of granting patents for conventionally bred animals and plants.

“It is extraordinary that the European Patents Office even considered this, as the practice restricts access to the world’s genetic resources to patents holders and those who can afford to buy the rights to use the patented material. This kind of monopolistic control leads to a loss of agricultural biodiversity at a time when we need it most to ensure all plant and animal breeders throughout the world can continue to produce new varieties and strains that can cope with our rapidly changing world.”

The scientists from the Rothamsted Research Institute published an open letter last week imploring anti-GM protestors not to destroy or prevent their trial of aphid-resistant GM wheat. In the letter they pledge that the results of the publically funded work will not be patented or become owned by a private company. And they stress that the GM-wheat uses a “natural plant-based” process to produce a crop that “doesn’t need to be sprayed with insecticides”.

But the protest group Take the Flour Back has rejected the case made by the Rothamsted scientists and says that by going ahead with an open air trial they will be “recklessly endangering future livelihoods of the farming community – and putting our food supply at risk”.

In a response to the scientists’ open letter, the group said: “When a powerful minority threatens democratically expressed wishes of the majority, direct action become necessary.”

The protestors are calling on everyone worried about the impact of GM crops to join in a day of “direct action” at the trial site on 27 May. They continue: “We will come together to ‘take the flour back’, celebrating the thriving wheat industry we already have in the UK, with bakers, farmers, bee keepers, allotment holders and other bread-lovers”.

Organic farmer, Gerald Miles – a member of the Take Back the Flour group – told Radio 4’s Today Programme that the GM trial risked contaminating organic and conventional wheat crops with an “alien variety”. He added: “This can spread and escalate, they can’t give us a guarantee it won’t happen.”

Defending the Rothamsted trial, Dr Colin Ruscoe, from the British Crop Protection Council, told farminguk.com: “It is particularly disappointing to hear that an organic farmer is aiming to join in the proposed decontamination, ie. to destroy work on technology that could lead to many of the benefits that supporters of organic agriculture espouse – particularly reduction in the use of pesticides, and maximisation of biological control.”

A new Bill on grocery industry conduct will be presented in next Wednesday’s (9 May) Queen’s Speech, paving the way for it to be ratified by Parliament and set in statute.

The not-for-profit business support group’s Senior Policy Advisor, Alex Jackman, said of the Groceries Code Adjudicator: “When the draft bill was announced last year we were critical of the fact there were no plans for the adjudicator to have powers to fine supermarkets found to be treating their suppliers unfairly – a glaring omission.

“Our sentiment has not changed and we still feel that an adjudicator without the firepower to deal effectively with supermarket abuse can’t be effective.

“Supermarkets nowadays are multi-billion pounds corporate giants driven by money. Frankly, anything less than an adjudicator with the power to take that money from them is simply going to be woefully inadequate.

“Our position is that we support the adjudicator, and want it implemented as soon as possible, but we want the position to have powers to fine immediately, and, crucially, with multiplier fines for repeat offenders.  Let’s not set up a system whose hands are tied to begin with.”