US Codex Delegation Meeting

[Guest guest]

vitaminlawyerhealthfreedom.blogspot.com/

 

Ralph Fucetola, The Vitamin Lawyer wrote:

 

Saturday, September 27, 2008

US Codex Delegation Ignoring US Law

 

Another road trip to Washington, DC, last Wednesday 09/24/08 to the

FDA's Center for Food Safety in College Park, just over the Maryland

line. The US Codex Delegation was holding a Public Meeting to discuss

its policies for the upcoming Codex Committee on Nutritional Foods

for Special Dietary Uses.

 

The usual cast of characters were present in the auditorium ...

bureaucrats, lobbyists, a journalist and health claims researcher

Maury Silverman and me as Public Observers.

 

The ten item agenda covered many of the issues that concern us at

Natural Solutions Foundation. These include foods for children,

labeling and health claims. We've prepared a draft set of comments

that we will be submitting to the Delegation. We invite you to

comment too.

 

Here is the US Position Paper:

www.fsis.usda.gov/PDF/US_Dr...CNFSDU.pdf

 

Here is the email address for your comments: CCNFSDU (due

by 10/06/08)

 

Here are our Comments: www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php

 

What I found remarkable were the people present who questioned the

Delegates directly about the US Codex Delegation supporting positions

at the World Food Code meetings that seem to be contrary to US

statutory and case law. We join those objections and the Comments we

prepared specifically cite the US Supreme Court telling the FDA that

it cannot censor truthful commercial speech about health even to

protect us from making " bad " decisions with the information.

 

Here is what Dr. Laibow's written comments to the Delegation stated:

 

" NSF believes that the FDA's position on health claims violates the

US Constitution in restricting freedom of speech (see the Supreme

Court Decision in Thompson vs. Western States), that it has been

enjoined from doing so in the cited Supreme Court decision and that

it also violates US law (i.e., DSHEA, USC 1325, FDA Revitalization

Act of 1997 and S. 1082, FDA reorganization act 2007 so that the US

position in the international context of Codex violates both national

competence and is, in fact, illegal. "

 

One of the public commentators asked, pointedly, " Why is there no

discussion of current US standards in the position paper - it would

be useful to state what the current US law is... " [These quotes are

from my notes and may be paraphrased.]

 

The Delegate responded, " US policy is the foundation of our [Codex]

policy... "

 

The commentator responded, " If Codex is setting the world standard,

US should always tell how its position relate to current US law. "

 

Later, the Delegate admitted, " Codex definition of health claims is

much broader than the US definition... " but made no mention of urging

Codex to adopt definitions that would permit our more permissive, pro-

free speech rules to stand.

 

Most tellingly, the Delegate, responding to a question about how much

dialogue occurs with other Codex member nations, stated, " Most

interactions occur with the quad countries - US, Canada, Australia

and Britain... and through NAFTA... "

 

Another commentator asserted that " S & F claims [the typical vitamin

support for normal structure and function claims] are health claims

under Codex... "

 

And it goes... with citizens and commercial interests alike

questioning the assumptions of the US Codex bureaucracy