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CRN Sticks It to the Industry! A Report on the November 1st 2008 Cape Town Working Group Meeting
November 02, 2008
PRESS RELEASE
CRN Sticks It to the Industry!
A Report on the November 1st 2008
Cape Town Working Group Meeting
November 2, 2008
At today’s meeting of a Physical Working Group of Codex delegates in Cape Town, South Africa, the Council for Responsible Nutrition (CRN) managed – in just a few short minutes’ time – to transform a relatively innocuous Codex paragraph into one that could badly harm the health-food industry. How did this happen when CRN is supposed to be representing the best interests of its own health-food industry members, who pay large sums of money to CRN to protect their interests? Well, NHF is still wondering.
Among other things, the Working Group was discussing proposed Nutrient Reference Values (NRVs) for Labelling Purposes in Codex Guidelines on Nutrition Labelling and, in particular, this paragraph:
“C. Consideration of upper levels of intake
The establishment of general population NRVs may also take into account upper levels of intake established by authoritative scientific bodies.”
What this means in layman’s language is that Codex’s setting of nutrient reference values (essentially updated RDAs) may look to the Maximum Permitted Upper Levels that such august bodies as the German Risk Assessment Institute (BfR) might set for those vitamins or minerals. The key word here is “may,” which of course means that Codex would not have to consider the upper limits.
Unfortunately, CRN’s representative kept harping on his theme that the Codex Committee must “protect” consumers from “excessive” vitamin intake. In trying to tag some language to that effect onto the end of the above-quoted paragraph, he awakened the United States and Canadian delegates (who had been playing tag-team offense and defense all day long) to the failure of this paragraph to mandate compliance with maximum upper limits! So, Barbara Schneeman of the FDA – violating her legal and moral duty to follow U.S. law, which forbids setting upper limits of dietary supplements – asked the Working Group to change “may” to “should” so that the paragraph now reads:
“C. Consideration of upper levels of intake
The establishment of general population NRVs should also take into account upper levels of intake established by authoritative scientific bodies.”
In a last-ditch attempt to save the original wording, the National Health Federation (NHF) delegate argued that there could be no mandatory requirement here as it would require Codex to take into account conflicting upper levels of intake established by different authoritative bodies. (For example, there would be different upper levels set for niacin by BfR (at a Maximum Permitted Upper Level of 17 milligrams per capsule) and by the United States Institute of Medicine.) Unfortunately, the Chairwoman would have none of this argument and the wording remained as wished for by the U.S. and Canadian delegates.
Scott Tips, the NHF’s Codex delegate, commented that, “While ‘should’ is not quite as bad as ‘shall,’ it still introduces a requirement into the process that was not previously present. And it helps dovetail this developing standard into all of the other standards that are being put in place to require that vitamin and minerals not exceed an arbitrarily-decided Maximum Permitted Upper Level that will cause more harm to the health of consumers than can possibly be imagined – all in the supposed name of consumer safety.”
“Member constituents of CRN should – not may – be hopping mad at CRN for what it did today as well as its announced intention to keep harping on the theme that dietary supplements are dangerous and need upper limits established!”
“Equally appalling is Barbara Schneeman’s complete disregard for American law in pushing this theme of maximum upper limits, which limits are prohibited by U.S. law. As usual, the FDA does what it wishes while thumbing its nose at the express commands of the American people.”
The regular 30th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses (CCNFSDU) begins on Monday, November 3rd for the entire week, with more delegates in attendance than were at today’s Working Group meeting. As the only health-freedom organization with the right to attend and have its voice heard at these meetings, the NHF will be present all week long in order to protect and advance health freedom. Having already made more than a dozen separate comments at today’s meeting, NHF expects to be just as vocal during the full meeting.
For further information on Codex , please visit the NHF website (Codex) :
http://www.thenhf.com/codex.html
NHF Codex Overview (May be used as an article or printed as a handout to educate on Codex)
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Click here for the permanent link to this press release, use this link to inform others.
National Health Federation: Established in 1955, the National Health Federation is a consumer-education, health-freedom organization working to protect individuals' rights to choose to consume healthy food, take supplements and use alternative therapies without unnecessary government restrictions. The NHF is the only such organization with recognized observer-delegate status at Codex meetings. www.thenhf.com
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