As reported on Class46, Switzerland adopted in principle the European framwork on health claims for food products. In fact, Swiss law refers to the list of permitted claims in the sense of art. 13 of the Health Claims Regulation. The new law should have come fully into force on 31 March 2010.

It has now been announced, though, that the old and new law will be applicable concurrently until the end of the year (i.e. a health claim is permissible if it is either permissible under the new or old law). The reason is that the European Food Safety Authority has been swamped with applications for the inclusion of health claims in the list of permitted claims, and was unable to compile the list by 31 January 2010, as foreseen by the Regulation.

This legal situation is very unsatisfactory for the concerned manufacturers, because it is unlikely that the Swiss authorities will decide on the permissibility of health claims under the new Swiss law before the permitted list of the EU has been published to avoid contradictions. Most applications for permission to use special claims may be shelved until further notice, in other words.