European Food Information Council

This article is part of the Foodspin project of Spinwatch.

The European Food Information Council (EUFIC) claims to be a 'science based' information source on food, but actually functions as a food industry lobby group. It is co-funded by the European Commission and works with the Commission's EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity & Health.

On its website the Council describes itself as:

a non-profit organisation which provides science-based information on food safety & quality and health & nutrition to the media, health and nutrition professionals, educators and opinion leaders, in a way that consumers can understand. In response to the public's increasing need for credible, science-based information on the nutritional quality and safety of foods, EUFIC's mission is to enhance the public's understanding of such issues and to raise consumers' awareness of the active role they play in safe food handling and choosing a well-balanced and healthy diet...."

Location

The main offices for the European Food Information Council are located in Brussels, Belgium, but the organisation's network reaches across other European countries. The EUFIC is co-financed by the European Commission and the European food and drink industry. It is governed by a Board of Directors which is elected from member companies.

Funder controversies

Some of the companies that are listed as funders of EUFIC (see "Funding", below) have been involved in controversies which seemingly contradict EUFIC's aim (as expressed on one of its press releases) to enhance the public's understanding by providing "credible, science-based information on the nutritional quality and safety of foods".

For example, according to the Colombia Solidarity Campaign, Nestlé Colombia labelled powdered milk with false dates of production:

In November 2002, police ordered Nestlé Colombia to decommission 200 tons of imported powdered milk. The milk had come from Uruguay under the brand name Conaprole, but the sacks had been repackaged with labels stating they had come from a local Nestlé factory, and stamped with false production dates of 20th September and 6th October 2002. The real production dates were between August 2001 and February 2002... Senator Jorge Enrique Robledo charged Nestlé with using sub-standard, contaminated milk, “a serious attack on the health of our people, especially the children”.

Nestlé again came under scrutiny when, together with Coca-Cola, it produced and marketed a soft drink called Enviga which it claimed burned more calories than it provides and hence had the effect of "negative calories". Food Watchdog group CPSI (Center for Science in the Public Interest) said that "Enviga burns money, and over the long term is more likely to result in a negative bank balance than negative calories" and threatened to sue them if they continued to market the drink "with fraudulent calorie-burning and weight loss claims".

Pfizer, too, has been accused of illegal marketing. In 2008 former Pfizer marketing vice president turned whistleblower Peter Rost MD launched a lawsuit against Pfizer accusing it of marketing the growth hormone Genotropin for unapproved purposes "such as combating aging in adults and treating short stature in children" in Indiana. A federal judge in Boston denied Pfizer’s motion to dismiss and allowed Rost to proceed with his allegations of false claims for pediatric uses - but not aging in adults. Although it is legal for doctors to prescribe drugs for off-label uses it is illegal for companies to market them for these purposes.

Pfizer is described by Corporate Watch as the "largest and richest pharmaceutical enterprise in the world". According to the Financial Times, "Pfizer has powered its way up the global ranking list to its unassailable position thanks mainly to its marketing prowess."

Scientific advisory board

According to EUFIC:

The primary role of the Scientific Advisory Board is to ensure that EUFIC's information and communication programmes are based on reviews of scientific evidence which have the support of the scientific community at large so that the information is representative, factually correct and truthful.

Members of the scientific advisory board as of March 2009 are:

• Renate Frenz, Past Honorary Chairman, European Federation of Association of Dieticians (EFAD), Germany, Vice Chairman of the Advisory Board.
• Joanna Koch, NGO Representative at the United Nations in Geneva, and Convenor - NGO Working Group on Nutrition, under the Committee on the Status of Women, Geneva, Switzerland.
• Onno Korver, Former Chief Nutrition Scientist, Unilever, The Netherlands.
• Milan Kovac, Permanent representative of the Slovak Republic to FAO and WFP, Roma, Italy
• Alan Reilly, Deputy Chief Executive, Food Safety Authority of Ireland.
• Michael Sjöström, Head of Unit of Preventive Nutrition, Department of Biosciences/Medical Nutrition, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden.
• Giorgio Poli, Dean of the Faculty of Veterinary Medicine, University of Milan, Italy.
• France Bellisle, Service de Diabétologie, Hôtel Dieu, Paris, France.

Controversies around EUFIC people

The people listed below occupied the posts mentioned as at March 2008, according to the EUFIC website.

John Lupien

John Lupien - chairman of the EUFIC Scientific Advisory Board and former Director of the Food and Nutrition Division, Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations. "The primary role of the Scientific Advisory Board is to ensure that EUFIC's information and communication programmes are based on reviews of scientific evidence which have the support of the scientific community at large so that the information is representative, factually correct and truthful" However, the BBC news website reported on Friday, 8 October, 2004 that "A United Nations agency has launched an investigation into claims that a key consultation into how much sugar we should be eating was secretly funded by the sugar industry.... This funding deal was agreed with the FAO's then Director of Food and Nutrition, John Lupien." The report quotes Professor Jim Mann - Professor of Human Nutrition and Medicine, University of Otago in New Zealand - who states that "it would be impossible to produce an unbiased report when the source of funding came from groups with clearly vested interests."

Ronald Walker

Ronald Walker - member of EUFIC's Scientific Advisory Board. He was formerly a "consultant for DSM Nutritional Products, a company that sold “Twinsweet” from Holland Sweetener Company which is a mixture of aspartame and acesulfame-k". Interestingly, Walker wrote a review claiming that the artificial sweetener aspartame was safe. Neither the fact that Walker received "funding from companies selling aspartame", nor that he held "official positions with associations who are supported by aspartame manufacturers and marketers", nor the fact that he had previously defended aspartame, were disclosed in this aspartame review. This is somewhat controversial since it could be argued that reviews funded by manufacturers of a product under investigation could be considered biased and perhaps could misrepresent information. Aspartame has been linked in US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) data with such side effects as: epileptic seizures, anxiety, blindness in one or both eyes, confusion, memory loss, and neurological symptoms.

The EUFIC website, on the other hand, states in an article named "Much Ado About Nothing" that aspartame has been approved as safe for use by the general public and rubbishes claims that it could be linked to multiple sclerosis. Aspartame is used in products from Coca-Cola (one of EUFIC's member companies) such as Diet Coke - "At Coca-Cola, we use aspartame and other low-calorie sweeteners in our low-sugar and diet soft drinks".

Josephine Wills

Josephine Wills - director general of EUFIC. Wills also works for Masterfoods (a division of Mars which has been a member of EUFIC). In April 2000, The Independent (London) reported that Mars was funding research in the US claiming to show that "the cocoa beans used to make chocolate contain naturally occurring polyphenols - plant compounds whose antioxidant properties can reduce the risk of heart disease." The article adds that Mars "is patenting a manufacturing process by which polyphenols can be retained in the chocolate".

Dr Josephine Wills, "head of external science and health for Mars", is quoted as saying:

Polyphenols act as antioxidants - they can combat LDL oxidation which can lead to deposits in arteries, and reduce platelet activation. They are pretty powerful antioxidants.... What we've done is preserve as much of the natural level as possible.

The article quotes Food Commission spokesman Ian Tokelove as saying that he is "highly sceptical" of any Mars bar health benefits:

"Okay, there's the cocoa beans, but what about the fat and the sugar? A Mars bar is high fat, high sugar - not what you would consider a healthy product, although the odd one is not going to hurt you."

This is particularly worrying given that "EUFIC is an active participant of the European Platform for Action committed to helping fight one of the most serious health challenges facing the EU today: Obesity." As a result of pressure to reduce child obesity, some of these member companies of EUFIC such as Pepsi-Co, Coca-Cola, McDonald's and Mars have agreed to reduce the amount of advertising and marketing they put out aimed at children under 12. However there has been speculation that companies have taken these steps to "police themselves" in order to avoid regulations being imposed on them. Their actions have been describes as "half measures".

Members and funding

According to EUFIC's website (March 2009):

EUFIC is co-financed by the European Commission and the European food and drink industry. It is governed by a Board of Directors which is elected from member companies. Current EUFIC members are: Barilla, Cargill, Cereal Partners, Coca-Cola HBC, Coca-Cola, DSM Nutritional Products Europe Ltd., Ferrero, Groupe Danone, Kraft Foods, McCormick Foods, Masterfoods, McDonald's, Nestlé, Novozymes, PepsiCo, Pfizer Animal Health, Procter & Gamble, Südzucker, Unilever, and Yakult.

This list of EUFIC members listed on the Coolfood (a project of EUFIC) website as at February 2008 adds Mars to the above list.

Contact

Laura Smillie

European Food Information Council - EUFIC

Rue Guimard 19

1040 Brussels

Belgium

e-mail: laura.smillie@eufic.org

Affiliations

• EU Platform for Action on Diet, Physical Activity & Health
• European Snacks Association, member