2020-02 EU Specialty Food Ingredients welcomes the change of the European Commission’s approach to the concept of exclusive right of reference to the proprietary data

EU Specialty Food Ingredients welcomes the European Commission’s re-thinking of the concept of ‘exclusive right of reference’ in the EU Health Claims and Novel Foods legislation. The Commission now considers that the protection of proprietary data can be applied to studies which have been published prior to the submission of a novel food/ health claim application. 

Since the introduction of the ‘exclusive right of reference’ in Regulation (EC) No 1924/2006 on nutrition and health claims made on foods – EU Specialty Food Ingredients has consistently campaigned for an innovation-friendly interpretation of this concept (e.g. EU Specialty Food Ingredients’ Innovation Dialogue). EU Specialty Food Ingredients has argued that limiting data protection only to studies that are not in the public domain would go against the EU’s aims of protecting investment and supporting innovation. Additional concerns were that this would discourage university-industry cooperation on new research and diminish public and academic scrutiny of scientific developments.

Therefore, EU Specialty Food Ingredients welcomes the new approach and hopes that this will contribute to fostering innovation, maintaining constructive relationship between the industry and scientific community and ensuring transparency and public trust in food innovation.