5,000 Vitamins and Health Foods
by Sam Lister, Health
Correspondent
www.timesonline.co.uk/newspaper
April 12, 2005
A EUROPEAN directive
controlling the sale of some vitamins and other food
supplements, which is due to become law this year, was
declared illegal by a top judge yesterday.
The health food rules, which affect thousands of products on
sale in Britain, were seriously deficient and broke basic
legal principles, an Advocate-General at the European Court of
Justice in Luxembourg said.
The criticism by Leendert Geelhoed was hailed as a victory for
the British health food industry’s legal challenge to the
European Union directive.
Campaigners said that the directive — which promotes a
“positive list” of permitted substances — would have outlawed
300 vitamin and mineral ingredients, resulting in the removal
of more than 5,000 products from sale. The Alliance for
Natural Health said that ingredients under threat include some
forms of vitamin E and vitamin C and minerals such as
vanadium, silicon and boron. Millions of people take these
regularly without any ill-effects.
The Food Supplements Directive is designed to tighten controls
on the market in products sold as health foods: natural
remedies, vitamin supplements and plant extracts. The
Advocate-General said that the directive infringed EU
principles of “legal protection, legal certainty and sound
administration”.
His comments carry judicial weight, but remain only advisory.
A final court verdict on the directive is not due until the
summer. In most European Court cases, the judges follow the
Advocate-General’s advice.
The directive was approved by EU governments in 2002. Health
food manufacturers were given until July 12 this year to
submit scientific proof that their ingredients are safe. Once
approved, the ingredients and products go on the “positive
list” of permitted substances for use in health foods.
The plans prompted a petition in Britain of more than one
million signatures, a letter of protest to Tony Blair from
more than 300 doctors and scientists and motions opposing the
law from both Houses of Parliament.
The British Health Food Manufacturers’ Association, the
National Association of Health Stores and the Alliance for
Natural Health argued in court that the law was unnecessary
and that the costs of complying would be prohibitive for many
small companies.
Robert Verkerk, executive director of the alliance, commended
the Advocate-General for seeing through the “flawed science”
of the directive.
One third of British women and a quarter of men take health
food supplements in a market estimated to be worth at least
£335 million a year. On the Continent, however, health food
products are treated more like medicines. Mr Geelhoed said
yesterday that the idea of establishing an EU “positive list”
was valid, but the directive should be annulled because it
lacked clear rules and norms for the European Commission to
follow when deciding if a product is allowed on the list.
“I must conclude the [EU legislature] has seriously failed in
its duty to design such a far-reaching measure with all due
care,” he said. “The directive infringes the principle of
proportionality because basic principles of law, such as the
requirements of legal protection, of legal certainty and of
sound administration, have not been taken into account.”
The Advocate-General recommended that the court rule the law
invalid, but Mr Geelhoed backed the directive’s aim of
improving cross-border EU trade in food supplements by
removing differing national rules on the composition,
manufacturing specifications, presentation and labelling of
such foods.
Provided by
Zeus Information Service
www.zeusinfoservice.com
