Good news regarding access to supplements! (In Europe)

[Guest guest]

I'm glad to see some good news, regarding CODEX.. hopefully this

resistance will continue to bear fruit..

 

http://www.alliance-natural-health.org/index.cfm?action=news & ID=151

 

ANH PRESS RELEASE: Food Supplements Directive invalid

 

Advocate General finds Food Supplements Directive invalid under EU

law. This is a remarkable victory for ANH and consumers of leading-

edge food supplements.

 

For immediate

release

 

 

5 April 2005

 

ADVOCATE GENERAL FINDS FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVE INVALID UNDER EU

LAW

 

ALLIANCE FOR NATURAL HEALTH SET TO WIN ITS LANDMARK CHALLENGE TO THE

EU FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVE

 

There was tremendous news today for the millions of people in Europe

who choose to use food supplements. Following a landmark challenge

in the European Courts of Justice (ECJ) brought by the Alliance for

Natural Health and Nutri-Link Ltd to the contentious Food

Supplements Directive, which effectively proposed to ban 75% of

vitamin and mineral forms, Advocate General Geelhoed, the senior

adviser to the ECJ, gave his Opinion in favour of the Alliance's

case.

 

What does this mean? That the chances of consumers being able to

continue using the natural food supplements they believe are

beneficial to their health are now greatly increased. There has been

uproar about the proposed EU ban, and maybe, against the odds, the

consumer is going to come out on top in what is a remarkable modern

day case of David and Goliath.

 

In a statement released in Luxembourg today at 0830 GMT, the

Advocate General concluded that:

 

The Food Supplements Directive infringes the principle of

proportionality because basic principles of Community law, such as

the requirements of legal protection, of legal certainty and of

sound administration have not properly been taken into account.

 

It is therefore invalid under EU law.

It should be stressed that the Advocate General's pronouncement is

not a ruling. That will come from the ECJ judges, later - probably

around June. But typically, in the vast majority of cases, the Court

Judgment follows the recommendations of the Advocate General.

 

If the Advocate General's recommendations are adopted, in effect,

the ban on vitamin and mineral forms not included on the

EU's `Positive list,' due to come into effect on 1 August 2005, will

be declared illegal. In essence, the positive list of allowable

nutrient forms will be deemed to be too narrow, too restrictive, and

based on flawed science.

 

This would avoid the totally irrational situations that the Food

Supplements Directive would otherwise create. For example,

synthetically produced selenium would have been allowed on the

positive list, while the natural source found in Brazil nuts would

not; synthetic forms of Vitamin E (often used in `adverse' vitamin

studies reported in the media) would be allowed, but the natural,

most beneficial food forms would not.

 

An outstanding moment for the Alliance for Natural Health

 

The Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) is a Europe-wide professional

organisation dedicated to ensuring that good science and good law

are applied to regulation affecting the leading edge of natural

health. If the Advocate General's recommendations are endorsed by

the ECJ judges, it will represent the culmination of three years

dogged determination, dedication and hard work on the part of ANH

and its many supporters around the world.

 

`It is commendable that the EU Advocate General has seen through the

flawed science and law of the Food Supplements Directive and reached

his recommendations today,' said Dr. Robert Verkerk, Executive of the ANH. `All that ANH is campaigning and working

cooperatively for is the right for consumers to have access to safe

natural healthcare and for legislation to be based on good science

and good law. This is a great day for the tens of millions of people

who believe passionately in the benefits of natural, preventative

healthcare.'

 

David C. Hinde, Solicitor and ANH Legal Director, added: `This is a

very significant Opinion in a landmark case. What we want to see in

the EU is the Food Supplements Directive doing the job for which it

was created which is to provide a " safe harbour " for food

supplements so that they are not classified as drugs, and to promote

their availability across the EU. Advocate General Geelhoed is the

most senior Advocate General at the ECJ and his considered reasoning

vindicates ANH's legal analysis and position. We are very optimistic

that the Court will adopt his recommendations.'

 

Supporting safe supplements

 

ANH supports many aspects of the Directive, and firmly endorses the

banning of ingredients that are patently not safe, stating that

existing UK and EU food law already provides perfectly effective

protection from unsafe products getting onto the market.

Furthermore, ANH says that it is not scientifically rational to

classify an ingredient as being unsafe without taking dosage levels

into account, something that was not a condition of being admitted

onto the positive list.

 

ANH believes that a far more appropriate system for banning any

substances that might pose a risk to health would be to produce

a `Negative list' for ingredients where there was proper evidence of

lack of safety. The system proposed by the EU was going to ban

ingredients on the basis that companies did not have the financial

capacity to meet the high data threshold required for the scientific

dossiers demanded by EU authorities. In this way, ingredients that

have been part of the human diet for thousands of years, and which

are increasingly difficult to derive from conventional foods, would

be lost, and would not be able to be supplemented.

 

The future of the leading edge of natural health secured

 

Drawing its support European-wide from consumers, manufacturers,

retailers, practitioners and some of the leading experts in

nutritional medicine, ANH has taken on the Goliath of the European

Commission and those that support the unscientific and unlawful ban

in the Food Supplements Directive, to protect the interests of

everyone concerned with the leading-edge of food supplements and

natural healthcare.

 

`None of the major EU countries felt the need to oppose our

application for a declaration that the ban on vitamins and minerals

in the Food Supplements Directive was unlawful,' added Anthony

Haynes, Technical Director of Nutri-Link Ltd., a UK food supplements

company that brought the legal challenge jointly with ANH. `It's

bizarre how this regulation got this far.'

 

A wide welcome across the industry if the ban is overturned

 

Greg Watts, Chief Executive of Ultralife, a manufacturer of leading-

edge food supplements, said: `This is very encouraging news. If the

ban came into force we would have to reformulate down to simpler,

more basic products that consumers and practitioners find are less

effective.'

 

Dr Damien Downing, a medical doctor and one of the UK's leading

practitioners in nutritional medicine, said: `Practitioners of

nutritional therapy, and there are thousands of them in the UK,

largely use leading-edge food supplements. If these nutrient forms

remain, we can continue to treat our patients with meaningful

solutions and provide the products that we know are so beneficial. A

ban would in one fell swoop remove the vital tools of practitioners'

trade.'

 

Sara Novakovic, owner of Oliver's Wholefood Store in Richmond,

Surrey, said: `At last it is now highly likely we can continue to

offer the products that our customers ask for and want, rather than

have to remove them all from the shelves for no good reason and

supply them with inferior quality alternatives.'

 

The end of the beginning

 

This is just the beginning for the Alliance for Natural Health.

Regulatory and industry pressure through the EU Food Supplements

Directive was always likely to translate globally, particularly to

the US, through Codex and the World Health Organisation. Without

having to justify any health hazard, and without considering any

benefits, safety has been used as a reason to restrict the

availability of natural food products.

 

`Yet food supplements are the safest things that people put into

their mouths – considerably safer even than conventional foods',

said Dr Robert Verkerk. `With rapidly declining vitamin and mineral

content in fruit vegetables and other foods, and continuing

increases in degenerative diseases such as heart disease and cancer

in the West, this has always been a very big issue worth fighting

for.'

 

`Fundamentally, an amended Directive would help to slow down the

agenda of the Codex Alimentarius Commission to export worldwide an

onerous, EU-style regime for food supplements.'

 

David Hinde added. `The ANH is now going to be working on getting a

proper procedure in place for the Food Supplements Directive and in

addition, the next challenges will be on legislation proposing to

reduce dosages to ineffective levels, and to restrict other nutrient

forms such as amino acids, enzymes and plant nutrients. Traditional

herbal remedies are also under threat. In its work, the Alliance for

Natural Health will continue its thorough, professional approach

based, as always, on `good science, good law.'

 

ENDS

 

For enquiries and further information contact:

 

Alliance for Natural Health

www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

Dr Robert Verkerk, Executive Director

Tel. 01252 371 275

E-mail: robv

 

David C. Hinde, Solicitor, Legal Director

Tel: 020 7738 1640

E-mail: davidh

 

IKON Associates

(PR advisers to the Alliance for Natural Health)

 

Adrian Shaw

Tel: 01483 535102

Mobile: 0797 990 0733

E-mail: adrian

 

 

Paul Donkersley

Tel: 01483 535101

Mobile: 0796 764 6046

E-mail: paul

 

Notes for editors:

 

1. The Alliance for Natural Health is a Europe-wide association

of manufacturers, distributors, retailers, consumers and

complementary practitioners who have an interest in food

supplements. More information, including details of members, will be

found at www.alliance-natural-health.org

 

Good science and good law underpin all of the ANH's work, and the

scientific reports produced by the ANH are endorsed by many of the

world's leading doctors and scientists working in the field of

nutrition.

 

2. If the ban on vitamins and minerals is implemented there is

much at stake:

 

· Over 5000 products will disappear from the shelves of UK

health stores as a result of the ban removing access to over 300

vitamin and mineral ingredients (out of a total of about 420). These

include, amongst others, the main natural forms of Vitamin E,

several forms of vitamin C, the key natural form of folic acid, MSM

and a range of minerals such as vanadium, silicon and boron, all

being products which millions of consumers choose to take as part of

their regular health regime and have done so without any ill effects

for many years.

 

· An individual's freedom of choice to take safe natural

health products will be removed – 40% of the UK's population take

vitamins and minerals.

 

· Products are to be banned with absolutely no scientific

justification. Many of the world's leading scientific and medical

experts in nutrition support the absence of any proper basis for the

proposed bans.

 

· Although the proposed bans related only to vitamins and

minerals, unless overturned, the `Positive list' system will most

likely be transferred to other nutrients used in food supplements,

such as plant extracts, amino acids and enzymes. The precedent set

by an ANH victory will drastically reduce the chance of future bans

on these other nutrient forms.

 

· Further legislative proposals by the EU are due to be

considered by the European Parliament later this and next year.

These include restrictions on maximum dosages of vitamins and

minerals and restrictions on health claims of foods. Again, the ANH

is working to help positively shape such legislation using its

mantra of `good science and good law'.

 

05-Apr-05