The EU health claims register: how to use it when formulating

Every permissible health claim in the EU lives in one place: the EU Register of nutrition and health claims. It lists the claims that are authorized, the ones that are rejected, and the conditions attached to each. It is the definitive answer to “can we say this?” — and the most useful time to consult it is while you're formulating, not after, when the product is already built around a claim you might not be allowed to make.

What the register contains

The register records authorized claims with their exact conditions of use — the nutrient, the qualifying amount, the permitted wording — and also the claims that have been rejected or are non-authorized. So it tells you not just what you can say, but the precise circumstances under which you can say it, and what you definitely cannot. It's the reference that turns a marketing wish into a compliant statement or a clear no.

Use it at design time

The expensive mistake is building a product and its marketing around a benefit, then checking the register and finding the claim isn't authorized — or carries a condition the formula doesn't meet. Consulting the register at the formulation stage flips this: you choose the claims you want, read their conditions, and formulate to meet them, so the product is designed from the start to support the claims it will carry.

Conditions become formulation targets

An authorized claim's condition of use — usually a minimum amount of the nutrient — becomes a target for the formula. Reading the register tells you the floor each intended claim sets, which you then design to. The register and the formula meet at the qualifying dose: the register defines it, the formula has to deliver it.

The botanicals caveat

A wrinkle worth knowing: many health claims relating to botanicals are unresolved — submitted but neither authorized nor rejected, held in a pending state. So a botanical benefit may be neither clearly permitted nor clearly forbidden, which is its own risk. The register makes this visible, so you can see when a claim sits in that uncertain territory rather than assuming it's fine.

Keeping claims tied to the register

The practical discipline is to treat each claim on a product as a reference to a register entry with its conditions — so the claim is traceable to an authorized wording and a qualifying dose the formula meets. That linkage is what keeps a label's claims defensible and catches a claim that a reformulation has undermined.

This is general information, not regulatory or legal advice. Requirements differ by market and change over time, so confirm current rules with the relevant authority or a qualified regulatory expert before relying on them.

Where Lemoniq fits

Lemoniq links each claim to its authorized basis and conditions in the structured formula — so you formulate to the qualifying dose a claim requires, see when a claim is unauthorized or in the pending botanical territory, and keep every claim on a label traceable to what the product actually supports.

The takeaway

The EU claims register is the definitive source of what you can say and under what conditions — and using it at formulation time, so claim conditions become design targets, is what builds products around claims they can actually make. Tying each claim to its register basis is what keeps the label defensible.

Lemoniq links your claims to their authorized conditions as you formulate. See how it works