The true cost of health claims and why patience is a virtue

Are health claims dossiers really that expensive, and has the ‘wait and see’ approach to submitting dossiers won? Stephen Daniells speaks to Joerg Gruenwald, PhD, President of Analyze & Realize, about how much it costs to compile a dossier, and why it’s better to wait than rush a health claims proposal.

According to Joerg Gruenwald, PhD, President of Analyze & Realize, figures of €5 million are off the mark, and trials plus dossiers are not as expensive as people think.

Speaking at Vitafoods 2009 in Geneva about the mass of health claims rejections, Gruenwald said it was indicative of inexperience in the food industry, and an “almost pharmaceutical perspective” from EFSA.

“So far the food industry has not really done very deep research like the pharmaceutical industry. So certainly a lot of food companies believe they have strong data, and that they are not as strong as they think.

“On the other side, EFSA puts the level extremely high and they look at it from an almost pharmaceutical perspective.”