Drink manufacturers can no longer claim that water can prevent dehydration, EFSA rules

Nevin Barich

LOS ANGELES , November 18, 2011 (Industry Intelligence) – A ruling from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) said that drink manufacturers can no longer claim that water can prevent dehydration, FoodManufacture.co.uk reported Nov. 18.

The EFSA’s Panel on Dietetic Products, Nutrition and Allergies has disallowed the following water-related health claim: “The regular consumption of significant amounts of water can reduce the risk of development of dehydration and of con-comitant decrease of performance.”

The panel’s decision was based on its distinction between “water loss in tissues” and “reduced water content in tissues.” The EFSA decided that these two statements are not risk factors, but rather measures of water depletion. Thus, they are measures of the condition dehydration. As a result, they concluded that the “proposed claim does not comply with the requirements for a disease risk reduction claim pursuant to Article 14 of Regulation (EC) No. 1924/2006.”

The primary source of this article is FoodManufacture.co.uk, Montpellier, France, on Nov. 18, 2011.

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