After seven years of effort, Canada’s tea industry thought it had achieved a major victory.
It was May 2007, and Health Canada’s natural health products directorate had finally approved health claims for tea.
Officials such as tea association president Louise Roberge, who had worked on the project for years, were heating the kettle for celebratory pots of their favourite tea.
“The approved health claims will help educate consumers about the health benefits of drinking tea,” she said at the time.
“Consumers will know that tea is officially a healthy beverage choice.”
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The federal agency approved three health claims for black, green and oolong tea: as a source of antioxidants; as a way to increase alertness and as a way to increase and improve cardiovascular health.
The approval meant Canada’s tea makers could include those claims in their packaging and marketing, possibly helping to increase sales for the $319 million a year industry.
“We were celebrating,” Roberge said recently, adding the claims approval process had been expensive and time-consuming.
Over the next few months companies began preparing their product licence applications for the wording to be used in their labels and spent time and money redesigning their packaging and devising new advertising strategies.
Then something strange began to happen. None of the licence applications were being returned. In mid-September the association discovered that Health Canada had refused to sign off on the requests.
Roberge was told the agency had decided the claim for tea had to be approved under the more onerous rules for food claims rather than the natural health product claims.
As a result, scientific documents submitted to support the original claims had to be reviewed by Health Canada to see if they meet the stricter criteria.
“So right now we’re in limbo,” Roberge said.
While the industry is working with Health Canada to resolve the situation, Roberge is frustrated and unhappy.
“We did everything we had to do to get the claim and then they changed the rules on us with no consultation,” she said.
“Health Canada has been making this so difficult.”
Some health claims for tea are allowed in Europe and the United States, although there are differences of opinion.
Roberge said Health Canada has indicated to the association that it needs more scientific evidence that antioxidants in tea provide a health benefit.
“They’re looking for a level of research that is almost unattainable, but that’s what we have to deal with and work with. I think they’re going overboard.”
She said the tea industry might not have gone ahead if it had been told four years ago that it had to pursue a health claim under the more onerous rules for food rather than as a natural health product.
Nevertheless, having devoted so much time and energy over the past seven years, it’s not about to throw in the towel, Roberge said.
“Until they slam the door in my face and say no, we will continue to pursue it.”
She offered three pieces of advice to groups seeking a food health claim: be prepared to spend a lot of time and money; gather more supporting scientific data than they think necessary and hope Health Canada doesn’t change the rules halfway through.
“It isn’t an easy task,” she said.
Making claims
There is no formal legal definition of a health claim in Canada. The informal definition used by Health Canada defines it as any representation in labelling and advertising that states, suggests or implies that a relationship exists between the consumption of food or food constituents and health.
Health Canada allows five generic health claims based on the following relationships:
- Low sodium and high potassium and a reduced risk of high blood pressure.
- Calcium and vitamin D and reduced risk of osteoporosis.
- Low saturated and trans fats and reduced risk of heart disease.
- Vegetables and fruit and reduced risk of some types of cancer.
- Nonfermentable carbohydrates in gum and candy and reduced risk of dental caries that lead to cavities.
Two more are under consideration and are expected to be approved in 2008:
- Whole grain, vegetables and fruit and reduced risk of heart disease.
- Folic acid and reduced risk of neural tube defects.
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved 15 health claims, with two more under review. Among those available in the United States but not approved in Canada are: fibre-containing grain products and cancer; soy protein and heart disease and soluble fibre and heart disease.
The FDA has also approved 16 “qualified health claims” that are based on emerging but not conclusive evidence of a health benefit. Canola oil obtained a qualified health claim in the U.S. in 2006.
In addition to regulating health claims for food, Health Canada also sets rules for nutraceuticals, which are products isolated or purified from food, generally sold in medicinal form, with demonstrated health benefits, and functional food, which is consumed as part of a regular diet with health benefits beyond basic nutrition.
