one-food diabetic diet

Codex Alimentarius Working Party (Nutrition and Food for Special Dietary Uses)

As regards foods for diabetic people, the Commission's report concludes that there is no scientific basis on which to develop specific compositional requirements for this category of food and that diabetic people should eat as healthily as possible choosing a diet from a variety of food for normal consumption.

The aim here is to include a clause that appears in Directive 2009/39/EC to prevent giving the impression that a food that meets only one requirement can be used for the people or diets covered by this regulation.

In particular, the Commission should be empowered to adopt certain specific Directives, a list of substances with specific nutritional purposes and of other substances intended to be added to foodstuffs intended for particular nutritional uses, together with the purity criteria applicable to them, and, where appropriate, the conditions under which they should be used, provisions rendering it possible to indicate on foodstuffs for normal consumption that they are suitable for a particular nutritional use, special provisions for foods for persons suffering from carbohydrate metabolism disorders (diabetes), rules for the use of terms concer ...[+++]ning the reduction or absence of sodium or salt content or the absence of gluten, which may be used to describe the products, as well as conditions under which reference may be made in labelling, presentation and advertising to a diet or to a category of persons.

Since it is not clear whether an adequate basis exists for specific provisions to be adopted for the group of foods intended for persons suffering from carbohydrate metabolism disorders (diabetes), the Commission should be allowed to adopt or propose the relevant provisions at a later stage, after consultation of the European Food Safety Authority.