Process for the Assessment of Scientific Support for Claims on Foods (PASSCLAIM): overall introduction

The primary role of diet is to provide sufficient nutrients to meet the metabolic requirements of an individual and to give the consumer a feeling of satisfaction and wellbeing through hedonistic attributes (such as taste). In addition, by modulating specific physiological targets, diet can have an additional function: beneficial physiological and psychological effects beyond the widely accepted nutritional effects. In fact, diet can not only help to achieve optimal health and development, but it does also play an important role in reducing the risk of disease. Much attention is now being paid to claims for foods, especially those related to the newly discovered effects of dietary components on body functions. The main thrust of the recent Consensus Document on Scientific Concepts of Functional Foods in Europe, produced as the final deliverable from the EU DG XII Functional Food Science in Europe (FUFOSE) Concerted Action, was to suggest the outline of a scheme to link claims for functional foods to solid scientific evidence. FUFOSE suggested that Claims for “enhanced function”and “reduced risk of disease” are only justifiable when they are based on appropriate, validated markers of exposure, target function or an intermediate endpoint (Fig. 1). FUFOSE conclusions and principles are now taken to the next logical stage, i. e. application of the principles. The project “Process for the Assessment of Scientific Support for Claims on Foods (PASSCLAIM)”starts with, and builds upon, the principles defined within the publications arising out of the FUFOSE project. The Concerted Action PASSCLAIM (QLK1-200000086) is supported by the European Commission,Quality of Life and Management of Living Resources Programme (QoL), Key Action 1 (KA1) on Food Nutrition and Health and is coordinated by ILSI Europe. Objectives of the project