In a meeting held on January 21st, 2021 the Danish Minister for Food, Agriculture and Fisheries, Rasmus Prehn, expressed his administration’s intention to work towards the acceptance of the word “probiotic” on the labels of food products marketed in the country.
This move is aligned with Spain’s decision to authorize the use of the term, announced back in April 2020, and Italy’s classical position. In fact, in a survey conducted by Sandwalk BioVentures (https://www.sandwalkbio.com/probiota2021) in December 2020, a total of 7 EU Member States (namely Spain, Italy, Greece, Bulgaria, Poland, the Czech Republic and Malta) expressed their friendliness towards the use of the term “probiotic” in food labels, even if subject to different conditions. In this survey, Denmark’s authority expressed its currently official position, which is aligned with the one from the European Commission and is contrary to the use of the term. However, if Denmark’s recent decision is confirmed, 30% of EU countries would be allowing the use of the term.
Mr. Prehn announced that the Danish Ministry will contact Spain’s and other EU countries’ competent authorities in the coming months regarding this subject, aiming at changing the regulation at the EU level. A public recording (in Danish) of the meeting is available at https://www.ft.dk/aktuelt/webtv/video/20201/mof/td.1735944.aspx?as=1.
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