re: Good news from Europes

[Guest guest]

Sorry Christa, Couldn't read your mail so have gotten the original from the

website

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

ANH PRESS RELEASE: Food Supplements Directive deemed 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:

 

a.. 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.

 

b.. 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 Director 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

 

Graham Sorenson

 

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