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For brands selling into the European Union

Sell across the Union.
The claim is European. The door is national.

The Hive is the regulatory information and ordering platform from Supplement Factory, a UK supplement manufacturer. It brings published claim registers, market rules, regulatory alerts, and your quotes, orders and signed documents into one account. For business customers only.

What may be said is common ground: the European Commission’s register, resting on EFSA opinions, states the claim, the wording, the conditions of use and whether it was authorised or refused. What is not common ground is how a product gets on sale. That stays national, several member states require a notification before first sale, and a notification is recorded rather than approved, and no response is not a yes. The Hive holds the register, the Union list of novel foods and the market-by-market requirements in one account.

The Hive brings PRAS+ alerts, your Vault, and your quotes and orders into one account. For business customers only.

What is actually in there

What does the Hive hold for the European market?

The European register is the spine of it, mirrored from the Commission’s own published file under CC BY 4.0 and re-imported on a schedule. Around it sit the registers of the markets European brands export to, so one account answers both questions.

The Union list of novel foods

Regulation (EU) 2017/2470

Which novel foods are authorised for the Union, with their conditions of use, specifications and labelling requirements. An ingredient that is not on the list, and not covered by a valid authorisation, is not one you can place on the market while you argue about it.

Member state placement requirements

The Hive’s Market Registrations tool

What each covered market expects before first sale: whether a notification or declaration is required, to which authority, what has to accompany it, and who actually enforces afterwards. Stated plainly, including the part operators most often get wrong: being recorded is not being approved.

The Great Britain register, alongside the European one

The published GB register on GOV.UK

Held separately, because since divergence it is a separate list. If you ship in both directions, the Hive will tell you which register an answer came from rather than letting you assume they agree.

The counted registers, in the order that matters here

The US, Californian and Australian registers hold over 9,000 entries as at the date of publication. We do not publish counts for the GB and EU registers. Every source is attributed.

  1. Mirrored

    European health claim entries, permitted and not permitted

    European Commission register, on EFSA opinions · CC BY 4.0

    The register this page is about: authorised and non-authorised entries together, each carrying its conditions of use, its EFSA opinion reference and the Commission Regulation behind it.

  2. over 1,300

    GRAS notices for the United States

    US Food and Drug Administration · public domain

    The most common export question after the Union, and the one where an ingredient’s American standing is decided.

  3. over 1,300

    new dietary ingredient notifications for the United States

    US Food and Drug Administration · public domain

    Its counterpart for anything that was not already in the United States market before their 1994 cutoff.

  4. over 5,000

    permissible ingredients for the Australian market

    Therapeutic Goods Administration · publisher terms of use apply

    Australia works from a closed list of what may be used at all, so it fails formulas that Europe would only have made you re-word.

  5. over 1,000

    permitted indications for the Australian market

    Therapeutic Goods Administration · publisher terms of use apply

    And its claims are picked from a determination rather than composed.

  6. over 900

    Proposition 65 listed chemicals for California

    California OEHHA · publisher terms of use apply

    A Californian obligation that sits on top of federal compliance and is frequently triggered by contamination rather than by anything on your ingredient list.

Figures are stated as "over" because the registers are re-imported on a schedule and grow. The European claim register itself is described without a figure on purpose: we do not publish a count for it. The Hive also holds national datasets that are not counted here.

The local part

What catches European brands out?

The claims rules are the part everyone studies. The gap is usually somewhere else: in the conditions attached to a claim, or in the difference between the Union rule and the national door.

  1. A notification is not an authorisation

    Where a member state requires a product to be notified or declared before first sale, the authority records it. It does not assess it, endorse it, or confirm that it complies. Silence afterwards is not approval, and the product sits on the market under the operator’s responsibility exactly as it did before.

  2. The register lists refusals as prominently as approvals

    Entries carry a status, and "non-authorised" is one of them, with the reasons for non-authorisation recorded alongside. Those entries are the ones a general web search is worst at surfacing and the ones your risk is concentrated in.

  3. The claim belongs to the dose, not to the ingredient

    Every authorised entry carries conditions of use, and many of them are a minimum quantity per serving. Drop below it (to hit a price, to fit a capsule, to clear a supplier minimum) and the claim goes with it, even though the ingredient is still printed on the pack.

  4. Maximum levels are national, not Union-wide

    Maximum amounts for vitamins and minerals are not harmonised across the Union. Some markets set legally binding limits; others publish guidance values that are not legally binding at all. A dose that is unremarkable in one member state can be the reason a product is stopped in another.

  5. Novel food is an authorisation, not an opinion

    The Union list is a list of authorisations with conditions attached, not a summary of what is generally considered safe. If an ingredient is not authorised for the use you intend, the answer is not a stronger dossier in your own files. It is a different ingredient, or a different market, until the authorisation exists.

  6. The British list is no longer your list

    Great Britain maintains its own claims register now. European brands shipping into the UK, and UK brands shipping into the Union, both need the entry from the register that governs the sale, which is why the Hive keeps them apart and labels every answer with its source.

Inside the Hive

What do you get when you open an account?

Eight tools, each built against a specific mistake. For a European brand the ones that earn their place first are Claims Explorer, Market Registrations and the alerts, because those are where the Union rule and the national door meet.

Claims Explorer

Membership

Relates to Mistakes 01 and 02

Search the health claim register by ingredient, by claim or by body system. You see the permitted wording, the conditions of use including the dose the claim requires, and the entries that are recorded as not permitted. It helps you check a claim before a designer sets it in type.

Market Registrations

Membership

Relates to Mistake 03

The requirements for each market you are considering, in one place: what has to be notified, what is restricted, what a label has to carry. It helps you ask whether a formulation can be sold in a market while the question is still cheap to ask.

PRAS+ alerts

Included

Relates to Mistake 05

PRAS+ alerts you to changes in the sources it monitors, for the categories you select. It may not cover every change. Regulatory alerts and recall notices are included for Supplement Factory customers.

Supplement Genius

Membership

Relates to Mistakes 01, 02 and 04

Ask a regulatory question in plain English. Supplement Genius is designed to answer from the registers and show the entry, publisher and date. Check the source before relying on an answer. It tells you what the register says, not what to do about your product.

The Vault

Included

Relates to The mistake of not being able to prove it later

Signed orders, terms, specifications and certificates are filed under your account and available to you there, so you are not searching an old email thread when a retailer asks for documentation.

Test My Supplement

Access included, tests charged

Relates to The mistake of claiming what you have not verified

Scan a label, see which tests match the ingredients, see the price on screen, send it in. Results and certificates are filed to your Vault. Access is included and tests are charged. Every membership level carries a discount on testing.

Artwork and label compliance

Included

Relates to Mistake 02

Artwork approvals and uploads run inside the Hive and are part of the Hive. Design and compliance services are priced separately, per project.

The Concierge

Hive Plus and Hive Pro

Relates to The mistake of not asking

Message your concierge and book a client care call. Concierge Lite on Hive Plus covers messages and booked calls, and we aim to reply as quickly as we can. The full service on Hive Pro adds priority handling and arranges the travel and hospitality benefits for you.

Membership is the same everywhere: The Hive, Hive Plus and Hive Pro. For business customers only. See the full pricing.

Straight answers

Questions European brand owners actually ask

These are answers about how the rules work and what the Hive shows you. They are not advice about your product, and nothing here replaces your own regulatory or legal counsel.

What is the EU Register on nutrition and health claims?

It is the European Commission’s published register of nutrition and health claims, recording for each entry the substance, the claim, its conditions of use, the health relationship, the EFSA opinion behind it, the Commission Regulation and whether it is authorised or non-authorised.

It is the reference point for what may lawfully be said on a supplement sold in the Union. The Hive mirrors the Commission’s own file under CC BY 4.0 and re-imports it on a schedule, so what you search is the register rather than somebody’s summary of it.

Do I need to notify a food supplement before selling it in the EU?

In several member states, yes: a notification or declaration to the national authority is required no later than the first placing on the market.

It varies by country, which is the whole difficulty. What does not vary is the meaning of it: the authority records the notification, it does not approve the product, and responsibility for compliance stays with the operator throughout. The Hive keeps the requirements for the markets it covers in one place so the question is answered before you commit to a country.

Are there EU-wide maximum levels for vitamins and minerals?

No. Maximum amounts are set nationally, and member states differ, with some setting legally binding limits and others publishing non-binding guidance values.

For a brand selling across several markets that turns a single formulation decision into several regulatory ones. It is worth settling before a production run rather than after a market rejects a dose the rest of the Union was content with.

Can I use a health claim that EFSA gave a positive opinion on?

Only if it appears on the register as authorised, in wording that carries the same meaning, and only where your product meets its conditions of use.

An EFSA opinion is a step in the process and not the permission itself. The register is where the answer is final, which is why the Hive shows you the entry, its status and its conditions together rather than the science alone.

Is the EU claims register the same as the British one?

No. Great Britain maintains its own nutrition and health claims register, separately from the European Commission’s.

The Hive imports both, from their own published sources, and every answer names the register it came from. If you sell in both directions, treat them as two checks rather than one.

What happens if a claim is withdrawn after my product is on shelf?

The rule changes and your stock does not, which is how a compliant product quietly becomes a non-compliant one.

Changes are published, but they are published across several bodies and nobody sends them to you. PRAS+, the Hive’s alert system, alerts you to changes in the sources it monitors, for the categories you select. It may not cover every change. It is included for Supplement Factory customers.

Read the entry before the artwork is signed off.

The European register is public, it is well made, and almost nobody in a brand team has it open at the moment the decision is actually taken. That moment is the entire product.