The nutrition and health claim regulation (NHCR) aims to protect consumers against false or incorrect nutrition and health claims by requesting scientific substantiation. It also aims to establish a level playing field in the internal market for all food producers. European regulations such as the NHCR require national authorities to enforce these acts. Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 requires national authorities to adopt a risk-based enforcement approach for controls on compliance with feed and food law requirements. Our analysis shows fragment- ed national enforcement practices. So, 18 Member States have developed 13 different guidance documents on the flexibility of wording and/or compliance with the NHCR, whilst the Member State authorities have also taken diverging actions. The NHCR is therefore current- ly unable to establish a level playing field. An EU-wide approach in enforcement should be developed to ensure such fair competition in the internal market.