FOOD. Science. Technology. Quality

Food. SCIENCE. Technology. Quality

Food. Science. TECHNOLOGY. Quality

Food. Science. Technology. QUALITY

Authors

BARBARA RATKOVSKA, HANNA KUNACHOWICZ, BEATA PRZYGODA

Title

Domestic market of food products fortified by vitamins and minerals in the light of the european regulations

Abstract

A fundamental document regulating issues referring to food fortification is the Regulation (EC) No. 1925/2006 of the European Parliament and the Council of 20 December 2006 on the addition of vitamins, minerals, and some other substances to foods. With regard to labelling food products and to issues not yet regulated at the Community level, the above mentioned Regulation appeals to the existing directives and regulations of the Community, and to relevant national regulations of the Member Countries. An important element in the protection of the consumers’ health and of their education in the domain of nutrition is to observe the rules in force, especially those referring to labelling foodstuffs providing nutritional information. On the basis of labels placed on 51 fortified food products, available on the Warsaw market and belonging to various assortment groups, it was evaluated how the manufacturers of those products observed the rules in force on food fortification and food labelling. It was found that the foodstuffs investigated were fortified exclusively using vitamins and minerals permitted to be added to food, but in the case of 11 products, the quantities of those fortifiers exceeded the levels as required by the national rules. The required nutrition information (according to group 2, Directive 90/496/EEC, and total amounts of the vitamins and minerals in those products after fortification) was included in the labels on 9 products out of 51 investigated products. In many cases, the information on nutritional value of products was neither clearly visible nor enough legible. The majority of food products had nutritional claims of manufacturers attached to them and informing that certain vitamins and/or minerals were added.

Keywords

adding vitamins and minerals, fortified food, labelling with data on nutritional value, packages of food products, nutritional claims

Download