On 2 March 2023, the Court of Justice of the EU (“CJEU”) issued a preliminary ruling  clarifying various aspects around the classification of products as foods for special medical purposes (“FSMPs”).  The CJEU reinforced and supplemented its prior ruling in Case C-418/21 Orthomol (see our blog here for further details).

This case touches on a number of concepts in the FSMP definition.  As a reminder, Article 2(2)(g) of Regulation (EU) 609/2013 (the “FSG Regulation”) defines an ‘FSMP’ as:

“food specially processed or formulated and intended for the dietary management of patients, including infants, to be used under medical supervision; it is intended for the exclusive or partial feeding of patients with a limited, impaired or disturbed capacity to take, digest, absorb, metabolise or excrete ordinary food or certain nutrients contained therein, or metabolites, or with other medically-determined nutrient requirements, whose dietary management cannot be achieved by modification of the normal diet alone” (emphasis added).

In summary, the CJEU concluded:

• In determining the borderline between an FSMP and a medicine, all characteristics of the product need to be taken into account to determine whether it is intended to meet particular nutritional requirements or to prevent or cure human disease.

• The concept of ‘dietary management’ has to be understood to require a link between the disease and the nutritional requirements arising from it, the satisfaction of which is indispensable to the patient.  The nutritional requirements do not necessarily have to be satisfied through digestion.  

• The concept that the dietary management of the patient cannot be met through ‘modification of the normal diet alone’ means that meeting nutritional requirements through supplementing or changing the normal diet is impossible, dangerous or very difficult for the patient.

• The term ‘nutrient’ has to be interpreted in accordance with Regulation (EU) 1169/2011 on food information to consumers (the “FIC Regulation”). 

• A product is ‘used under medical supervision’, “if the recommendation and subsequent assessment of a health professional are necessary in light of the dietary management needs arising from a particular disease, disorder or health condition and the effects of the product on the patient’s dietary management and on the patient” (paragraph 81).

• In determining the borderline between an FSMP and a food supplement, all characteristics of the product need to be taken into account to determine whether it is intended to meet the nutritional requirements of a patient that could not be achieved through regular diet or whether it is intended to supplement the normal diet.

Continue Reading CJEU Provides Further Clarifications on Food for Special Medical Purposes