- Campaigners fighting tighter regulation of vitamins on
sale in Britain won approval yesterday to take their battle to the European
Court of Justice in Luxembourg.
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- A High Court judge, Mr Justice Richards, sitting in London,
ruled that companies opposing the Government's implementation of an EU
directive had an "arguable" case and should be allowed to challenge
it at a higher level as soon as possible.
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- Under the Food Supplements Directive, due to come into
force in August next year, the EU would specify which substances could
be labelled vitamins or food supplements. Maximum doses would be put on
vitamins and labelling would be made clearer. Some 300 over-the-counter
pills would have to be tested by EU scientists to make sure they met new
safety tests.
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- The European Commission insisted that the rules, which
would harmonise the law on vitamins and health supplements across the EU,
would protect consumers. "The directive will not ban any product,"
Paoli Pestori, the Commission's director of food safety, told BBC Radio.
"The aim is to ensure that vitamin and mineral pills which are marketed
as food supplements are safe and properly labelled." She said individual
countries could approve other substances for inclusion on the list of vitamins
and health supplements, if they had a safety record put forward before
2005.
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- Campaigners said the rules would result in many of the
currently available forms of essential minerals, including forms of calcium,
magnesium, zinc and selenium, being removed from sale. They feared there
could be drastic restrictions on the potency of vitamins and minerals,
thereby removing a further swath of products that have been used safely
in Britain for many years. The Alliance for Natural Health warned that
obtaining a safety record could cost companies up to £250,000 per
product. David Hinde, its spokesman, said: "Under the law here, you
do not need to have a safety record for food supplements. It's a fundamental
change in the law that is being proposed here."
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- In court yesterday, Rhodri Thompson QC, representing
the health food industry, said the crackdown threatened "health, freedom
of choice and legitimate commercial interests".
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- Mr Thompson, who was appearing for the National Association
of Health Stores and Health Food Manufacturers' Association, said it was
"most extraordinary" that the Government, which wants to implement
the directive, was opposing a reference to the European Court.
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- Outside court, the actress Jenny Seagrove, a campaigner,
said: "I am here because I believe that [all] of us should have the
right to choose what supplements we take, and have been taking very happily
and healthily for many years."
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- The Association of the British Pharmaceutical Industry
said the legislation was a genuine attempt to ensure vitamins and health
supplements were safe. The Consumers' Association said it was a "scandal"
that food supplements were not controlled more strictly.
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- © 2004 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd
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