How can we test health claims about ingredients and nutraceuticals?

Shift in consciousness

In view of the growing human and pet populations and the shift in consciousness towards more healthy, responsible and sustainable diets, food manufacturers are continuously searching for new ingredients that will add value to their products. Beyond ensuring food safety, there is a rising tendency towards developing ingredients and nutraceuticals with health benefits.

To claim such effects on their labels, they must go through a demanding regulative process. Like medicines, the safety and efficacy of food ingredients must be proven in a scientific, objective way in clinical trials.

Different types of claims

The FEDIAF Code of Good Labelling Practice for Pet Food is a useful practical guide for the industry. It categorises claims relating to health into four types of functional claims: nutrient function, enhanced function, health maintenance and decreased disease risk, and PARNUT (foodstuffs for particular nutritional uses). The essential distinction lies in the wording.

Specific, drug-like claims (for example, ‘Maintains the cognitive function’) must always be backed up by scientific evidence and clinically proven. This entails conducting a trial in a population of target species of companion animals. A classic intervention-based study in a drug’s clinical trial is usually a randomised, double- blind, placebo-controlled, parallel-group, multicentre study.

The challenge

Several challenges arise when designing a feeding study according to the above-mentioned principles. For example, some ingredients may change the taste, smell or texture of the food, making it difficult to conduct fair blind testing. Moreover, proper blinding becomes impossible if testing the health effects of raw food versus pellets, for example.

The solution

The key, therefore, lies in well-defined and objective outcome measures defined by clinically meaningful endpoints. These endpoints are a direct measure of the health function and survival of the test subjects. Alternative endpoints such as clinical signs, laboratory tests and imaging are very useful as biomarkers in disease and health. Many objective biomarkers and various study designs have been proposed and established to quantify health status and solidify the food industry’s health claims.

Indeed, the testing of health claims about ingredients and nutraceuticals is an excellent opportunity for collaboration between the pet food industry and science.