Government 'has given in to EU ban on health food supplements'

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http://news.independent.co.uk/uk/health_medical/story.jsp?story=597349

Government 'has given in to EU ban on health food supplements'By Colin Brown, Deputy Political Editor03 January 2005Ministers were accused of hypocrisy yesterday over an EU directivewhich could force health shops to stop selling a number of remediesand food supplements used by cancer sufferers and obese people.The row is over attempts by the EU to ban food supplements andvitamin-based products which could be harmful in large doses, and forwhich the makers have made exaggerated health claims. But campaignersincluding Carole Caplin, the self-styled health and lifestyle guru,and the actress Jenny Seagrove say hundreds of remedies will beincluded in the ban.Ms Caplin told MPs at a protest meeting that the directive will banthe sale of supplements containing calcium, magnesium and boron usedfor strengthening brittle bones and by patients with hipreplacements;

nutrient supplements and antioxidants for cancersufferers; food supplements to reduce obesity; and folic acidsupplements for women to reduce neural tube defects such as spinabifida in babies.Health ministers have assured consumers, retailers and manufacturersof health foods that they are doing all they can to ensure saferemedies are not banned.But EU documents obtained by The Independent reveal that theGovernment's lawyers have said the UK does not dispute the basis forthe new regulations that threaten the sale of many health foodproducts.In a submission to the European Court of Justice, where a case isbeing heard, officials from the Treasury solicitor's office said thenew rules were not disproportionate and did not breach the principleof subsidiarity, which allows the UK to determine its own rules.Furious campaigners accused the Government of hypocrisy. Sue Croft,the director of Consumers for Health

Choice, said: "The Government issaying one thing to consumers, to industry and to Parliament whilepursuing quite a different course in its negotiations with the EU."The organisation is threatening to raise the issue in marginal Labourseats in the general election to put pressure on the Government.Ms Caplin told MPs the Government had said it was committed toimproving public health but its strategy was made a nonsense byignoring the threat to safe and effective products.Ms Seagrove said EU officials have professed profound scepticism atthe suggestion that there were up to 300 missing nutrients from itsapproved list. She accused the Health minister, Melanie Johnson, ofhaving "no interest in supplements" saying she had "consistentlyfailed to act on behalf of the 21 million British consumers who usethem".The Food Supplements Directive will outlaw products containingingredients not on its list of permitted

substances. The list wasdrawn up for baby foods. The campaigners say there is no evidencethat the ingredients are unsafe for adults. But the UK lawyers saidthe list was a "suitable starting point" for the regulations.Chris Grayling, the Tory health spokesman, who is backing thecampaigners, said: "This is sheer hypocrisy by the Government."Ms Johnson, who has led the negotiations with the health foodindustry, said the UK could exempt products, if a detailed dossierreasoning why was submitted by the manufacturers. But all theingredients that might be exempted must have been on the marketbefore the directive was adopted in July 2002, she said.The directive lists 28 vitamins and minerals and 112 sources fromwhich they were derived for use in food supplements, which can besold legally after it comes into force on 1 August.

 

 

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