22/06/09 The Dairy Council said on Friday that regulators need to raise their game and take a 'common sense' approach to health and nutrition messages to the public. The plea comes in a week that has seen the European Food Safety Authority promise greater clarity in its procedures for assessing the science used to evaluate health claims and for better communications with applicants.

Dr Judith Bryans, Director of the Dairy Council, said: "EFSA's commitment is great and will help take us forward. It is absolutely right that health claims made on foods are underpinned by science which has been carefully assessed. But, the bureaucracy is stifling and inhibits our efforts to teach people how to construct a healthy balanced diet which contains all the recommended food groups."

"With that regard, the global dairy industry is backing the concept of nutrient density, an approach I wholeheartedly support. Nutrient density, or nutrient richness, is a positive science-based approach to nutrition education and in my view it is the right approach. For too long, people have been told how to eat by being told what not to eat and that approach is obviously not working since rates of obesity are still rising, It's time to remind people in clear and understandable language what they can eat and the importance of being active."