Independent report

UKNHCC annual report 2023 and 2024

Published 20 March 2025

Foreword

It is my pleasure to introduce the third annual report of the UK Nutrition and Health Claims Committee (UKNHCC) which covers the work of the committee in 2023 and 2024. This is my third report as Chair of the UKNHCC.

The committee did not meet in 2023 due to no new nutrition or health claim applications being received.

Dr Judith Buttriss stood down from the committee after 3 years of service in January 2024. I would like to thank Dr Buttriss for her contributions over the years, and wish her well for the future.

The UKNHCC assessed 2 health claim applications in 2024.

The first application was for a modification of an existing health claim authorisation applicable in Great Britain: ‘Consumption of beta-glucan from oats or barley as part of a meal contributes to the reduction of the blood glucose rise after that meal’. The UKNHCC concluded that there was a lack of sufficient evidence to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between beta-glucan (across different types and sources) and reduction of post-prandial glycaemic response at doses less than or equal to 2g per 30g available carbohydrate.

The second application received was for a health claim applicable in Great Britain: ‘Daily creatine supplementation can contribute to improved cognitive function’. The UKNHCC concluded that the evidence submitted did not demonstrate an effect for the claim that consumption of less than or equal to 3g creatine per day can contribute to improved cognitive function.

Both scientific opinions were published in August 2024.

The UKNHCC framework was reviewed and updated to provide more clarity and detail on the process taken to evaluate health claim applications. The updated framework was published in December 2024.

I would like to give my sincere thanks to members of the committee and the secretariat for remaining committed to the work of the UKNHCC in 2023 and 2024.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait, Chair of the UKNHCC

About the committee

The role of the UKNHCC is to provide scientific advice on, and risk assessment of, the evidence for nutrition and health claims. It provides scientific opinions to the UK government and the devolved governments.

The UKNHCC is supported in its work by a secretariat provided by the Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID), part of the Department of Health and Social Care. The secretariat has scientific expertise to support the decision-making process of the committee.

Further information about the UKNHCC can be found on the UKNHCC webpage, including:

• terms of reference
• code of practice
• framework for the evaluation of evidence submitted for the substantiation of nutrition and health claims
• updates on the work of the UKNHCC, which are detailed in the ‘UKNHCC meeting papers folder’
• register of members’ interests - an updated version of the register of members’ interests is published before each UKNHCC meeting and a snapshot of the register of interests for the years 2022 to 2024 is available in the declarations of interest section
• scientific opinions

Remuneration and committee finances

The amount paid to committee members for fees in 2023 was £0 because there were no UKNHCC meetings held in 2023.

The amount paid to committee members for fees in 2024 was as follows:

• the chair received a fee of £550 per full day meeting and £500 per reading day
• members not chairing received £500 per full day meeting and per reading day
• members who did not attend a meeting but provided comments before or after the meeting also received a reading fee based on the time they spent

The cost of the committee fees and expenses for the calendar year 2024, excluding secretariat resources, was £26,425. Costs were met by OHID.

UKNHCC membership and member biographies

Details of current UKNHCC membership can be found on the UKNHCC webpage. Biographies of UKNHCC members for 2023 to 2024 are provided below.

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait (Chair)

Professor of Human Nutrition, Norwich Medical School, the University of East Anglia. Her main research interests are mineral metabolism and requirements. She has served on a number of national and international advisory committees, including the:

• Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) Iron Working Group
• European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens and the EFSA Health Claims Working Group
• USA National Academy of Sciences Committee on Harmonization of Methods for Estimating Nutrient Intake References

She is currently a member of the:

• UK Food Standards Agency Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes (2020 to 2026)
• Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) (2021 to 2026) and a SACN representative on the Board of the National Diet and Nutrition Survey
• Scientific Advisory Group for the New Nordic Nutrition Recommendations (2019 to 2022)
• Technical Advisory Group for Global Anaemia Exemplars funded by the Gates Foundation (2020 to 2022)
• Big C Research Advisory Panel (2019 to 2024)

She is also Chair of the Food and Agriculture Organization, World Health Organization expert group on nutrient requirements for children aged 0 to 36 months (2020 to 2024).

She was elected a Distinguished Fellow of the American Society for Nutrition in 2024 and an Honorary Fellow of the UK Nutrition Society in 2021.

Dr Robert Boyle

Clinical Reader in Paediatric Allergy at Imperial College London.

His clinical trial and evidence synthesis work investigates ways to prevent the development of allergic conditions, using nutritional and non-nutritional interventions during pregnancy or the first year of life, and research integrity in the field of infant nutrition.

He works for Cochrane as a Senior Editor and is a member of the Subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition.

Dr Judith Buttriss (member until January 2024)

She is a public health nutritionist, specialising in nutrition science communication and provision of targeted advice on the application of science to underpin nutrition strategies.

She was Science Director (1998 to 2007) and then Director General (2007 to 2021) of the British Nutrition Foundation. She was a Visiting Professor at the University of Surrey until 2023. In 2018 she was awarded an Honorary Fellowship by the Nutrition Society and is a Fellow and past trustee of the Association for Nutrition. Since 2019 she has been a trustee of the Academy of Nutrition Science, and in October 2021 she became Chair. She was a member of the Strategic Advisory Board of the UK’s Global Food Security Programme until the end of 2023 and has contributed to the work of a number of government committees, most recently the Family Food Survey user group and committees concerning nutrient profiling, school food standards and the Eatwell Guide.

She also chaired the steering group for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council’s Diet and Health Research Industry Club funding programme and was a member of the Medical Research Council’s UK Nutrition Research Partnership committee.

She has first-hand experience of a number of nutrition issues and their interaction with public health. She has written numerous reviews, articles and book chapters on a wide range of diet and health topics, as diverse as:

• health claims
• plant foods and health
• child nutrition
• healthy ageing
• environmentally sustainable diets

She is an editor of the journal Nutrition Bulletin.

Dr Francesca Crowe

Associate Professor at the Department of Applied Health Sciences at the University of Birmingham. Her research focuses on the associations of the intake of certain foods and nutrients with the risk of developing diseases such as cardiometabolic disease, cancer and digestive diseases in large electronic healthcare data sets. She also has an interest in the primary prevention of cardiovascular disease.

She has authored over 100 peer-reviewed manuscripts to date in the field of epidemiology. Francesca also has an interest in nutrition and health claims and has spent time as a civil servant in New Zealand. Her main role there was to evaluate systematic reviews that have been provided by New Zealand food industry to make self-substantiated health claims on foods.

Professor Alison Gallagher

Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Head of Doctoral College at Ulster University. Her research interests are in the area of obesity, including:

• development of risk factors for disease
• low-energy and non-nutritive sweeteners and their potential impact on health
• physical activity and health (including implementation of lifestyle interventions at key stages across the lifecycle)

A registered nutritionist (public health) and Fellow of the Association of Nutrition, she is:

• a member of the UK and Ireland Nutrition Society (having been the Honorary Programmes Secretary between 2010 to 2017)
• Co-chair of the Scientific Committee for the 13th Federation of European Nutritional Societies (FENS) conference (held in Dublin, October 2019)
• Co-editor of the Nutrition Society textbook ‘Introduction to Human Nutrition (3rd edition)’
• currently Chair of the Nutrition Society Irish Section and Editor-in-Chief for the Proceedings of the Nutrition Society

She is also an expert member on the Scientific Advisory Panel on Sweeteners supported by the International Sweeteners Association (ISA) and chairs the Editorial Advisory Board of the Nutrition Bulletin. She is a passionate advocate for the European Nutrition Leadership Platform (ENLP), having first participated in the ENLP seminars in 1997 and been involved with this international leadership programme ever since, being the current Chair and President of the ENLP board.

Dr Darren Greenwood

Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds. His research focuses on the development and application of statistical methods in nutrition science and perinatal epidemiology. His expertise includes:

• meta-analysis of observational studies
• pooling individual participant data across separate studies
• correcting for measurement error and incomplete data in nutrition epidemiology

Recent work includes:

• applications to maternal and child nutrition
• randomised controlled trials of colorectal cancer screening
• intensive longitudinal modelling of long COVID symptoms

He has authored over 250 original peer-reviewed research articles, is a member of the UK Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition, past director of the World Health Organization Collaborating Centre for Nutritional Epidemiology and is a regular statistical reviewer for a number of leading international journals.

Professor Marina Heinonen

Professor of Food Safety (Chemical Food Safety) at the University of Helsinki, Finland and Head of the Department of Food and Nutrition. Previously she has held a position as Professor of Functional Foods (2002 to 2007). Her main interests involve:

• reactions in foods such as oxidation
• food compositional analyses
• functional properties of plant phenolics

In 2007 to 2012 she was a member of the Research Council for Biosciences and Environment at the Academy of Finland. She has been serving as an evaluator for research grants at the European Research Council since 2017, as well as holding the same position between 2010 and 2015.

She has been a scientific expert member at the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) since 2004, including past membership of EFSA’s:

• Scientific Panel on Food Additives and Nutrient Sources Added to Food (2004 to 2006)
• Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens (2006 to 2009, 2012 to 2018)
• working group on health claims (2007 to 2018)

At present she is a member of the EFSA working group of novel foods (since 2006), currently also including evaluation of safety of nutrient sources.

Emeritus Professor Harry McArdle

Deputy Director of the Rowett Research Institute, University of Aberdeen, until his retirement in 2015. He is now emeritus professor, University of Aberdeen.

He is a registered nutritionist (nutritional sciences) and a Fellow of the Royal Societies of Biology and of Medicine and was recently (2024) elected as an Honorary Fellow of the Nutrition Society. He is a member and vice chair of the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens and the Novel Foods Working Group and has served on other committees and working groups including the:

• EFSA Dietary Reference Values panel
• EFSA Health Claims working group
• Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)
• Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council
• Food Standards Agency Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes

He is currently a member of the Biomarkers of Status working group and the cannabidiol (CBD) Taskforce for EFSA.

He was Chair of Trustees of the Academy of Nutrition Sciences until October 2021 and a Trustee until December 2022.

Emeritus Professor Anders Sjödin

Medical doctor and emeritus professor of obesity research, Department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, Copenhagen University, Denmark. His main research interests are related to prevention and treatment of obesity. This includes control of appetite and regulation of body weight, energy and substrate metabolism. He also has a background in sport nutrition and exercise physiology.

Between 2012 and 2018 he served as a member of the Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens as well as in several working groups, including the Working Group on Health Claims, for the European Food Safety Authority.

Declarations of interest

Members are required to declare all their interests at the time of their appointment and to promptly notify the secretariat of any changes. Before, or at the start of every meeting, members are asked to declare any changes to their interests which are recorded in the minutes. It is the responsibility of each member to indicate if they have an interest in any item of business on the agenda of a UKNHCC meeting.

The UKNHCC’s policy on identifying and declaring interests and handling any potential or actual conflict of interests is set out in the UKNHCC code of practice. Members’ current interests are included in the register published on the UKNHCC webpage. Any interests that are no longer current will remain on the published register of declared interests until they have been included in at least one UKNHCC annual report, and so are on the permanent record.

Personal and non-personal interests

Members’ interests can be personal or non-personal.

Personal interests are personal financial gain or financial gain to a family member. Members should declare any active or controlling role in an organisation related to the work of the UKNHCC and whether or not the cumulative total of all their personal financial interests from a single source related to the work of the UKNHCC exceeds £5,000 each year.

Non-personal interests are payments or other benefits to an organisation in which the member is employed. These are not payments or benefits received personally, but for work in which a member is directly involved, or is directly responsible for, from a body related to the work of the UKNHCC. Members should declare whether or not the cumulative total of all non-personal financial interests in a single source exceeds £5,000 each year.

More information about the definitions of personal and non-personal interests can be found in the live register on the UKNHCC webpage.

Dr Robert Boyle

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Imperial College London

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: research, teaching and clinical practice

Dates: since 2007

John Wiley and Sons and the British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Nature of interest: consultancy

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: Joint Editor in Chief for the journal Clinical and Experimental Allergy

Dates: Co-editor 2015 to 2020 and Joint Editor in Chief from 2021

Several independent legal practices and coroner courts

Nature of interest: consultancy for expert witness and medical witness work

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: written medical assessments and court attendance in relation to cases of children and adolescents with food allergy and infant formula health claims

Dates: 2016 to present

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)

Nature of interest: member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN) subgroup on Maternal and Child Nutrition

Financial: yes (honoraria received and travel reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5000: no

Subject matter: advising on aspects of child and maternal diet and nutrition

Dates: January 2021 to present

Baby Feeding Law Group

Nature of interest: membership of the Baby Feeding Law Group

Financial: no

Subject matter: legislation to protect infant and young child feeding and enforcement of such legislation

Dates: since 2021

La Leche League Great Britain

Nature of interest: professional advisor

Financial: no

Subject matter: professional advice regarding allergy and breastfeeding support as required

Dates: since 2023

World Health Organization (WHO)

Nature of interest: consultancy

Financial: yes

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: contribution of chapter on health and nutrition claims for infant and young child formula to a WHO 360 report

Dates: 2023 to 2024

Chilean Society of Pediatrics

Nature of interest: invited lecture

Financial: yes (honorarium paid)

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: paediatric allergy

Dates: 2024

Belgian Federal Breastfeeding Committee

Nature of interest: invited lecture

Financial: yes (honorarium and travel expenses paid)

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: International Code of Marketing of Breastmilk Substitutes

Dates: 2024

European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Nature of interest: invited lecture

Financial: yes

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: adrenaline autoinjectors for treating anaphylaxis

Dates: 2024

Cochrane

Nature of interest: senior editor and editorial board member

Financial: no

Subject matter: strategy and editorial policy, peer review and editorial decision-making for Cochrane, a leading evidence synthesis organisation

Dates: since 2018

British Society for Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Nature of interest: membership

Financial: no

Subject matter: professional membership of national allergy society

Dates: since 2003

European Academy of Allergy and Clinical Immunology

Nature of interest: membership

Financial: no

Subject matter: professional membership of regional allergy society

Dates: since 2024

Taus, Cebulash and Landau legal practice

Nature of interest: expert witness

Financial: yes

Amount received per year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: expert witness in case related to infant formula health claims

Dates: since 2024

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

Nestlé

Nature of interest: my employing institution, Imperial College London, has a research and innovation partnership with Nestlé

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition science, although I am not involved in any Nestlé work at Imperial College London

Dates: 2017 to present

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Research for Patient Benefit programme

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: network meta-analysis project to evaluate comparative effectiveness of topical anti-inflammatory treatments for eczema

Dates: 2021 to 2024

NIHR Research for Patient Benefit programme

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: development and feasibility testing of an intervention to prevent potentially harmful skincare practices during infancy

Dates: 2022 to 2025

NIHR Systematic Reviews programme

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: core funding for Cochrane Skin Group

Dates: 2019 to 2023

NIHR Health Technology Assessment Programme

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: Trial of IGe (allergen-specific immunoglobulin E) tests for Eczema Relief (TIGER): randomised controlled trial of test-guided dietary advice for children with eczema, with internal pilot and nested economic and process evaluations

Dates: 2022 to 2027

American Academy of Dermatology

Nature of interest: research grants

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: Cochrane systematic reviews of treatments for skin conditions

Dates: 2020 to present

Food Allergy Research and Education

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: development of a diagnostic test for a form of food allergy called FPIES

Dates: 2024 to 2027

Dr Judith Buttriss

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Academy of Nutrition Sciences

Nature of interest: Trustee from 2019, Chair of Trustees from October 2021.

Financial: no

Subject matter: the Academy of Nutrition Sciences is a registered charity, established in 2019 to be an authoritative voice advancing and promoting evidence-based nutrition science

Dates: 2019 to present

Association for Nutrition

Nature of interest: Fellow and registered nutritionist

Financial: no

Subject matter: membership

Dates: Fellow from 2015 to present

Nutrition Society

Nature of interest: Honorary Fellow (since 2018) and member

Financial: no

Subject matter: membership

Dates: 1980 to present

General Mills

Nature of interest: gave talk at an online meeting of its Health and Wellness Council

Financial: yes (honorarium)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: nutrition advice

Dates: summer 2022

British Nutrition Foundation

Nature of interest: ad hoc support to Science Director

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: nutrition science support, including liaison with UK Research and Innovation (UKRI)

Dates: January to June 2022

Wiley

Nature of interest: Editor and member of Editorial Advisory Board of Nutrition Bulletin

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition

Dates: 2000 to present

UKRI

Nature of interest: Assessment Panel Member

Financial: yes (honoraria received, travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: transforming food systems, Institute Assessment Exercise (IAE) Panel

Dates: June 2021, October 2022 respectively

Medical Research Council

Nature of interest: member of UK Nutrition Research Partnership committee

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition research agenda

Dates: 2018 to 2022

Global Food Security Programme (UKRI and government departments)

Nature of interest: member of the Strategy Advisory Board for the Global Food Security Programme

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition advice

Dates: 2022 to 2024

Non-personal interests

None

Dr Francesca Crowe

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

University of Birmingham

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes (salary)

Amount received each year over £5000: yes

Subject matter: research and teaching

Dates: 2017 to present

Cegedim

Nature of interest: consultancy

Financial: no

Subject matter: reviewing and editing documents

Dates: 2024 to 2025

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR) Health and Social Care Delivery Research

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to the University of Birmingham)

Amount received per year over £5000: yes

Subject matter: Digital multi-component intervention to IMPROVE the care of older people living with Diabetes and chronic Kidney Disease: a type 2 hybrid effectiveness-implementation cluster randomised trial in primary care (IMPROVE DKD Trial)

Dates: from April 2024

NIHR Biomedical Research Centre (BRC)

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to the University of Birmingham)

Amount received each year over £5000: yes

Subject matter: data, diagnostics and decision tools

Dates: from December 2022

NIHR (Research for Patient Benefit)

Nature of interest: peer reviewer

Financial: no

Subject matter: peer reviewing research grant applications

Dates: from July 2021

IQVIA Scientific Research Committee

Nature of interest: peer reviewer

Financial: no

Subject matter: peer reviewing protocols for approval to use primary care data from the IQVIA Medical Research Database

Dates: from January 2021

Home Office

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to University of Birmingham)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: preventing violence against women and girls, and supporting children (PSVC)

Dates: from October 2022

NIHR

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to University of Birmingham)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: impRoving testing for cardiometabolic diseases in women with previous gestational diabetes mellitus: an exemplar study on implementation and evaluation of a novel dAta-DrIven rANdomised clinical Trial platform in primary care (RADIANT)

Dates: from June 2022

NIHR

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to University of Birmingham)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes.

Subject matter: OPTIMising therapies, disease trajectories, and artificial intelligence (AI) assisted clinical management for patients living with complex multimorbidity

Dates: from June 2021

Policy Matters

Nature of interest: consulting

Financial: no

Subject matter: advice on testing for blood levels of vitamin D in primary care, approaches to alleviate the burden of vitamin D deficiency in the UK

Dates: from May 2021 to present

Medical Research Council

Nature of interest: research project grant

Financial: yes (research funding to University of Birmingham)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: bringing innovative research methods to clustering analysis of multimorbidity

Dates: October 2019 to 2022

Professor Susan Fairweather-Tait

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Professor of Human Nutrition at Norwich Medical School, University of East Anglia

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: human nutrition

Dates: 2007 to present

Nutrition Society

Nature of interest: Honorary Fellow (FNS) (member since 1975)

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition research

Dates: 2021 to present

American Society for Nutrition (ASN)

Nature of interest: Distinguished Fellow of the ASN (member since 1988)

Financial: no

Subject matter: nutrition research

Dates: 2024 to present

Technical Advisory Group (funded by the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation)

Nature of interest: member of Technical Advisory Group

Financial: no

Subject matter: providing guidance on the selection of exemplar countries in relation to reducing the prevalence of anaemia

Dates: 2020 to 2022

Food Standards Agency (FSA)

Nature of interest: member of UK FSA Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes

Financial: yes (honoraria received; travel reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: novel food applications

Dates: 2020 to 2026

Big C Cancer Charity

Nature of interest: member of advisory panel

Financial: no

Subject matter: reviewing grant applications

Dates: 2019 to 2024

Secretary of the Nordic Council of Ministers and the Nordic Council of Ministers Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Nature of interest: member of the Scientific Advisory Group

Financial: no

Subject matter: providing advice for the new Nordic Nutrition Recommendations

Dates: 2019 to 2023

Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), World Health Organization (WHO)

Nature of interest: Chair of FAO and WHO expert group on nutrient requirements for children aged 0 to 36 months

Financial: no

Subject matter: setting dietary reference values

Dates: 2020 to 2024

WHO

Nature of interest: member of WHO Expert Advisory Panel.

Financial: no

Subject matter: contribute technical information and advice on developments within field of expertise

Dates: 2020 to 2022

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)

Nature of interest: member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN), member of vitamin D fortification working group

Financial: yes (honoraria received, travel reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: contribute towards scientific advice provided by SACN

Dates: 2021 to 2026

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Nature of interest: member of Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens Working Group on Upper Levels

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: assessing information required to derive upper levels of nutrients (iron and vitamin B6) and hearing expert for selenium

Dates: January 2022 to 2024

Foodomics conference 2022

Nature of interest: recorded conference presentation

Financial: no

Subject matter: talk on the origins of health claims and their future recorded for Foodomics 2022

Dates: 8 to 9 September 2022

National Diet and Nutrition Survey project board

Nature of interest: member of project board

Financial: no

Subject matter: representative for SACN (micronutrients)

Dates: November 2022 to present

EFSA

Nature of interest: participant in workshop

Financial: yes (honoraria)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: human-to-human scaling approaches for the derivation of tolerable upper intake levels

Dates: 28 February 2023 to 1 March 2023

EFSA

Nature of interest: participant in thematic workshop

Financial: yes (honoraria)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: derivation of conversion factors for new sources and form of nutrients

Dates: 9 March 2023

European Commission

Nature of interest: remote expert for EC HORIZON

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: reviewing grant proposals

Dates: April to June 2023 and April to June 2024

Medical Research Council

Nature of interest: participant in grant proposal meeting in Zurich

Financial: yes, travel and accommodation funded by UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) Medical Research Council Applied Global Health Research Board Networking Award

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: participate in writing a grant proposal on iron bioavailability from biofortified potatoes and beans

Dates: 9 to 10 January 2024

Henry Stewart Talks Ltd

Nature of interest: production of undergraduate level audio presentations (15 mins)

Financial: yes

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: around 35 presentations on ‘Vitamins and Minerals Your Body Needs’ for research institutions, universities, medical schools, and global pharmaceutical companies

Date: August 2024, ongoing

Erasmus and Blended Intensive Programme

Nature of interest: delivery of on-line lecture

Financial: no

Subject matter: summary of EFSA DRV opinion on water for course on drinking water requirements for health, held at Salzburg University, Austria

Date: 6 December 2024

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Nature of interest: research steering committee

Financial: no

Subject matter: member of steering committee for open innovation research club (OIRC) hub application on functional foods (led by the University of Reading and the University of Leeds)

Dates: 2022 to 2027

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Nature of interest: Co-chair of Advisory Board

Financial: no

Subject matter: OIRC hub application on biofortification (led by Norwich Research Park)

Dates: 2022 to 2027

Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes (research funding awarded to University of East Anglia over 2 years for staff time and travel)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: research on bioavailability of iron and zinc in potatoes (project in Peru)

Dates: April 2019 to 2022

Professor Alison Gallagher

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Professor of Public Health Nutrition and Head of Doctoral College, Ulster University

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: public health nutrition

Dates: 1999 to present (professor since 2014)

European Nutrition Leadership Platform (ENLP)

Nature of interest: voluntary work (Chair and President, ENLP Board)

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence to attend meetings of the ENLP Board are reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: advice and input to the ENLP board about ENLP

Dates: 2015 to present

ENLP

Nature of interest: voluntary work (Co-Director to ENLP Essentials seminar)

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence to attend programme held annually in Luxembourg (over 8 days))

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: engage training groups to deliver the seminar, advise and invite after dinner speakers and liaise with ENLP alumni around their input into the programme

Dates: 2018 to 2022

Atlantic Technological University (ATU)

Nature of interest: panel member

Financial: yes (honoraria to be received for participation as a panel member)

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: ATU Postgraduate Research Training Programme Evaluation Transformation Fund. The Higher Education Authority in Republic of Ireland under the European Regional Development Fund, Government of Ireland funded TU RISE scheme. ATU plans to allocate 60 PhD scholarship positions in 2024 through postgraduate research training programmes. Invited to participate as an external reviewer panel for applications submitted to this programme.

Dates: 2024

Northern Ireland Chest Heart and Stroke (NICHS)

Nature of interest: charity, voluntary (member and vice chair of scientific research committee)

Financial: no

Subject matter: reviewing research proposals submitted to the annual NICHS funding call and advising NICHS in relation to the quality of these applications for funding. Also input into NICHS business meeting which follows the research committee meeting.

Dates: 2018 to 2024

Editorial Advisory Board for Nutrition Bulletin with the British Nutrition Foundation

Nature of interest: member and Chair of Editorial Advisory Board for Nutrition Bulletin

Financial: no

Subject matter: participate in 2 meetings of the editorial advisory board each year. Assist with peer review of papers submitted to this journal and provide advice on the strategic direction of this journal.

Dates: 2019 to present (chair role taken on from October 2020)

Nutrition Society

Nature of interest: Editor-in-Chief, Proceedings of the Nutrition Society

Financial: yes (annual honoraria received for role)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: assist with peer review of papers submitted to this journal following presentation at Nutrition Society conferences and meetings and review of original communications (abstracts) submitted for presentation and/or publication.

Dates: 2020 to present

Nutrition Society

Nature of interest: charity, voluntary work (Chair of Nutrition Society Irish Section)

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence to attend committee meetings of Irish Section are reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: chairing Irish Section Committee meetings

Dates: June 2022 to present

Public Health Agency HSC Research and Development Division

Nature of interest: panel member

Financial: no

Subject matter: invited to participate as a panel member to review applications for Enabling Research Awards.

Dates: 2024 to 2025

Dutch Research Council (NWO) Spinoza and Stevin committee

Nature of interest: panel member

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence to attend one meeting of the committee per year will be reimbursed)

Amount received per year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: invited to participate as a panel member to review NWO Spinoza and Stevin Prize applications.

Dates: 2024 to 2027

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

International Sweeteners Association (ISA)

Nature of interest: consultancy, member of ISA scientific advisory committee

Financial: yes (honorarium received by employer (Ulster University) through consultancy for participation in meetings of the ISA Scientific Advisory Panel (2 meetings per year)

Amount received (by employer (Ulster University)) per year over £5,000: no.

Subject matter: advising ISA in relation to the current scientific evidence available on sweeteners

Dates: 2016 to present

ISA

Nature of interest: invited chair of a scientific symposium organised by ISA, held at the 14th Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) Conference 2023

Financial: yes (cost of conference registration, as well as travel and accommodation reimbursed by ISA, no honorarium was received for this contribution)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: Low/no calorie sweeteners as a tool in reducing sugars intake, body weight and risk of non-communicable diseases (NCDs): from evidence to recommendations

Dates: 16 November 2023

ISA

Nature of interest: invited speaker contribution to an ISA webinar

Financial: yes (an honorarium was received by my employer for this contribution)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: presentation on current scientific evidence available on sweeteners. Presentation title ‘Low/no calorie sweeteners in obesity and diabetes: does evidence support a useful role in public health?’

Dates: 26 October 2022

ENLP

Nature of interest: support grant

Financial: yes (funding to support an ENLP co-ordinator role)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: this grant income has been used to support Dr Kirsty Pourshahidi contribution as ENLP co-ordinator (0.2 full time equivalent) for 2 years

Dates: 2021 to 2023

GENIUS School Food Network

Nature of interest: Pump-priming research grant

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: this award is supporting work undertaken as part of a PhD which I co-supervised

Dates: 2021 to 2022

Interreg Cross-border Healthcare Intervention Trials in Ireland Network

Nature of interest: research grant award

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: the Walking In ScHools (WISH) trial: a cross-border trial to evaluate a walking intervention in adolescent girls. Funding was subsequently extended to complete the intervention in schools.

Dates 2018 to 2023

NICHS (charity body)

Nature of interest: research grant

Financial: yes (research funding for 2-year research project)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: promoting physical activity in adolescents: developing, feasibility and pilot testing the Youth – Physical Activity Towards Health intervention in post-primary schools in Northern Ireland (Y-PATH NI)

Dates: 2023 to 2025

safeFood

Nature of interest: tender, research grant

Financial: yes (research funding for 18 months)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: food messaging to children and adolescents – what works?

Dates: 2022 to 2024

Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society

Nature of interest: invited webinar speaker

Financial: no

Subject matter. short educational webinar organised by Professor Collette Short. Regulatory Affairs Professionals Society is the largest global organisation for people involved with the regulation of healthcare and related products. These webinar events are intended to provide brief updates on the regulatory landscape and usually consist of 2 to 3, 20 minute presentations and a short panel question and answer session. Topic of this short talk is ‘UK Health Claims - Post Brexit’ covering general process and requirements.

Date: 27 February 2023

Dr Darren Greenwood

As Director of the WHO Collaborating Centre in Nutritional Epidemiology 2018 to 2022, Dr Greenwood had administrative responsibility for Collaborating Centre interests that were not covered by personal or non-personal interests.

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Senior Lecturer in Biostatistics, School of Medicine, University of Leeds

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: biostatistics

Dates: 1996 to present (senior lecturer since 2007)

Springer publishers

Nature of interest: book editor

Financial: yes (royalties related to ‘Tu YK, Greenwood DC (Eds.) (2008) Modern Methods for Epidemiology. Springer.’)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: statistical methods

Dates: 2012 to present

Office for Health Improvement and Disparities (OHID)

Nature of interest: member of the Scientific Advisory Committee on Nutrition (SACN)

Financial: yes (honoraria received and travel reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5000: no

Subject matter: advising on nutrition and related health matters

Dates: May 2018 to present

Taylor and Francis Publishers

Nature of interest: peer review

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: peer review of proposed textbook

Dates: 2022

University of Agder

Nature of interest: teaching

Financial: yes

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: preparation of teaching materials

Dates: 2022

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

University of Leeds (World Health Organization Collaborating Centre)

Nature of interest: Head of Centre

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: nutritional epidemiology

Dates: 2018 to 2022

British Heart Foundation

Nature of interest: research

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: objective assessment of fatigue or dyspnoea as the mechanism of exercise limitation in heart failure: implications for individualised therapy

Dates: 2019 to 2022

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR)

Nature of interest: research project funding

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: long COVID multidisciplinary consortium - optimising treatments and services across the NHS

Dates: 2021 to 2023

NHS England

Nature of interest: research project funding

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: evaluation of NHS post-COVID-19 services using the ELAROS symptom tracking application

Dates: 2022 to 2023

NHS National Services Scotland

Nature of interest: research project funding

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: evaluation of national long COVID data using the ELAROS symptom tracking application

Dates: 2023 to 2024

Cancer Research UK

Nature of interest: research project funding

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: randomised controlled trial of behaviour change intervention to improve update of colorectal cancer screening

Dates: 2024 to 2026

NIHR

Nature of interest: research project funding

Financial: yes (research funding)

Amount received per year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: nutrition in pre-school children – the role of portion size, plant-based foods and commercially manufactured foods and drinks

Dates: 2024 to 2027

Professor Marina Heinonen

As Departmental Head of Food and Nutrition, Professor Heinonen has administrative responsibility for institutional interests that are not covered by personal or non-personal interests.

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

University of Helsinki

Nature of interest: employment

Financial: yes (honoraria received)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: directorship

Dates: 2018 to present

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Nature of interest: scientific expert work

Financial: yes (honoraria received)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: risk assessment on the safety of novel foods

Dates: 2018 to 2024

Non-personal interests

Non-personal interests included the following.

Novo Nordisk Foundation

Nature of interest: member, Committee for Plant Science, Agriculture and Food Biotechnology

Financial: yes (honoraria received)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: evaluation of research grant applications

Dates: 2020 to 2024

Emeritus Professor Harry J McArdle

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Nature of interest: member and vice chair, Nutrition Dietetics and Allergy Committee

Financial: yes (honoraria received, travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: yes

Subject matter: Novel Foods Working Group, Upper Levels Working Group

Dates: 2021 to June 2024

EFSA

Nature of interest: member, Novel Foods Working Group

Financial: yes (honoraria received, travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received per year over £5,000: yes.

Subject matter: Novel Foods Working Group

Dates: 2024 to 2027

Food Standards Agency (FSA)

Nature of interest: member of UK FSA Advisory Committee on Novel Foods and Processes

Financial: yes (honoraria received and travel reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: novel food applications

Dates: 2018 to October 2024

Academy of Nutrition Sciences

Nature of interest: Chairman of Trustees until October 2021

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: the Academy of Nutrition Sciences is a joint initiative between the Association for Nutrition, the British Dietetic Association, the British Nutrition Foundation and the Nutrition Society

Dates: trustee October 2021 to 2022

Royal Society of Medicine (RSM)

Nature of interest: presentation to RSM Conference

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: presentation entitled ‘Assessing potential health and nutrition claims: what evidence is required?’

Date: 29 November 2022

Nutrition and Growth meeting

Nature of interest: presentation to Nutrition and Growth meeting, London

Financial: yes (travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: presentation entitled ‘Do we need novel foods in paediatric nutrition?’

Date: 1 April 2023

Federation of European Nutrition Societies (FENS) meeting, Belgrade

Nature of interest: presentation for FENS

Financial: yes (part of travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5000: no

Subject matter: presentation entitled ‘Scientific opinions of EFSA over the last twenty years’

Date: November 2023

FENS meeting, Marseille

Nature of interest: presentation to Francophone Nutrition Society

Financial: yes (part of travel and subsistence reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5000: no

Subject matter: presentation entitled ‘Scientific opinions of EFSA over the last twenty years’

Date: December 2023

Non-personal interests

None

Emeritus Professor Anders Sjödin

Personal interests

Personal interests included the following.

Professor emeritus at the department of Nutrition, Exercise and Sports, University of Copenhagen, Denmark

Nature of interest: affiliation

Financial: no

Subject matter: prevention and treatment of obesity

Dates: emeritus since 2019

European Food Safety Authority (EFSA)

Nature of interest: hearing expert (as needed) for the Panel on Nutrition, Novel Foods and Food Allergens and Working Group on Health Claims

Financial: yes (honoraria, travel and accommodation expenses reimbursed)

Amount received each year over £5,000: no

Subject matter: advice on the evaluation of health claim applications

Dates: 2018 to present

Non-personal interests

None