The margarine product Becel has a funny television commercial in which a daughter in a disco is extremely embarrassed when her mother, full of energy while roller-skating, appears on stage: "Becel good for the heart”. Unfortunately it goes wrong, because the obligatory specific substantiation of this general claim is illegible.

The extended legal discussion at the Board of Appeal (in Dutch) centered on whether or not "good for the heart" is a general health claim. If so, it is allowed, provided it is combined with a specific health claim. Upfield, the manufacturer of Becel, therefore always mentions with the slogan “good for the heart” why that is, namely: “the mix of sunflower, linseed and rapeseed oil naturally contains Omega 3 & 6 that is good for healthy cholesterol”. This is an admitted specific health claim. 

All is good, you would think.

Yet it pans out wrong, as that text about Omega 3&6 and healthy cholesterol is only on screen for two seconds. That's too short for reading the entire text, let alone understand it, according to the Board of Appeal. Another argument follows: the white text does not stand against a white/yellow background. In other words, not enough contrast. Moreover, attention is distracted by the eye-catching heart symbol. So the obligatory specific health claim text is mentioned, but not sufficiently legible and not conspicuous enough. So in fact this is not a specific health claim, so the television commercial text is non-compliant with the law. 

The ruling contains more important information: if the text can be understood both as a general health claim, but also as a specific health claim, then the company gets to choose whether it is a general health claim, or a specific health claim. That is quite interesting; I would think that the text of the claim would be decisive, not the advertiser’s view. It is an elegant solution, though. 

And another point: for the question of the qualification of the claim, Upfield relies on scientific reasoning in EFSA opinions (in this case, in brief, "a reference to heart health" is a general claim). The Board takes the EFSA opinion into consideration. Rightly so, I think. 

In a new version of the television commercial, the Omega 3&6 text will not be missed.