Legislation
EU Advocate General Says Nay to EU Ban on Health Supplements
6 April 2005
In 2002, the European Union governments approved a directive that would ban many of the most common nutritional supplements throughout Europe. This ban covered vitamins, mineral plant extracts, and other various natural health products. Under the terms of this directive, manufacturers of these products were to be given until July 12 of this year to provide evidence that their products contained ingredients that are considered safe. Once approval was received, the products would then be put on a "positive" list and could be sold.
In the three years since this directive was issued, the British health food industry has been up in arms. The Health Food Manufacturers Association (HFMA) the National Association of Health Stores (NAHS) and the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH) challenged the directive. In Great Britain alone, this ban would have affected approximately 5000 products. It is estimated that one-third of all women and a quarter of the men in Britain use health food products, and these consumers were not happy. In fact, the directive resulted in a petition containing over a million names.
Yesterday, the advocate general of the European Court of Justice declared that this directive should be annulled since the parameters are not clearly defined. Although opponents of the proposed ban are encouraged by this decision, it is only an advisory and a final decision will not be made until the full court delivers a verdict. This is expected to occur within six months. It is customary, however, for the court to agree with the decision of the advocate general.
HFMA director David Adams was pleased by the decision and said, 'We hope this opinion will be followed through in the verdict and that millions of UK consumers can continue to buy the specialist food supplements they have been using safely for years.
D.R. Boyer
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