Regulatory Support, Food and Ingredient Authorization, Claims and Labelling

Novel foods

Companies wishing to launch new ingredients or foods in Europe may hesitate due to the complexity of European food legislation and European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) authorization procedures. Preparing a successful application not only requires contributions from food regulatory experts but also the capability to link toxicology, safety, allergenicity, nutrition, and food processing, for example. Few companies are able to address all these themes with internal resources alone. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research is an experienced partner for each step in this process. We partner with companies developing new protein streams from existing food crops, as well as entirely new sources from insects, plants, and microorganisms. Our current portfolio of Novel Food applications includes a number of novel protein sources.

Health benefits

Similarly, many companies struggle to understand what kind of communication related to beneficial health effects is permitted on websites and/or food packaging within the regulatory frameworks. A lack of clarity into the process of developing a health claim dossier may even hold companies back from exploring potential added-value benefits. Wageningen Food & Biobased Research has experienced experts who can evaluate the scientific literature and provide advice on labelling and content declarations. For companies choosing to pursue an approved claim, we can generate a data collection roadmap, provide early screening with in-vitro experiments, or conduct on-site human clinical intervention trials.

Flexible partnership

Wageningen Food & Biobased Research offers flexible support for food regulatory processes, from single-day consultancies through to full-service dossier preparation and follow-up.  Companies rely on our experts to evaluate documents, reports and data; to perform a gap analysis and provide roadmaps for data collection; to conduct experimental work to generate additional data; and/or to answer follow-up questions from EFSA. As a part of Wageningen University & Research, we have access to world-class facilities for conducting food and health research, from laboratory analysis to full on-site human clinical trials.