The European Court of Justice upholds the European Community's Food Supplements Directive

14/07/05 The European Court of Justice has made a ruling to uphold the European Community's Food Supplements Directive which comes into force on 1 August 2005.

Responding to the decision, Public Health Minister Caroline Flint, said:

"Speaking as the UK Government, our aim has always been to ensure the safety of food supplements and support consumer choice without imposing unnecessary burdens on business.

"We want to see flexibility in the system particularly for products that are primarily popular in the UK. We want consumers to continue to have a wide choice of supplements. At the same time, consumers need the information to make that choice an informed one. We are, of course, in close communication with the Commission and we are encouraged with the constructive responses we have been getting.

"We are concerned that some of the provisions in the Directive could be unduly burdensome. We understand the difficulties that industry and small businesses, in particular, have faced and we will continue to work closely with them to resolve the problems. We have provided resources to help industry and small businesses supply the evidence necessary to allow their products to continue to stay on the market for the time being. This doesn't require them to do any new testing or provide new data at this stage.

"The Directive will also set maximum levels of vitamins and minerals in food supplements. We believe that any maximum dosage level should be based on scientific evidence. We will work with other member states and the European Commission on this basis.

"We will now consider the judgement in full."

The Food Supplements Directive comes into force on 1 August 2005. Food supplements on the "positive list" will continue to be available in the UK. The UK food supplements industry has submitted 500 dossiers supporting the continued use of vitamins and minerals not yet on the "positive lists" to the Food Standards Agency. These dossiers have been forwarded to the European Commission who will then forward them to the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) for assessment. Derogation has been given to all of these substances allowing them to remain on the UK market pending an opinion from EFSA.

In October 2003 two sets of proceedings began in the High Court of Justice of England and Wales seeking annulment of the national domestic legislation implementing the provisions of the Food Supplements Directive. The first set of proceedings was brought by the National Association of Health Stores and Health Food Manufacturers Association against the Secretary of State for Health and the National Assembly for Wales on 10 October 2003. the second set was brought by the Alliance for Natural Health and Nutri-Link against Secretary of State for Health on 13 October 2003. The case will now return to the High Court of Justice England and Wales for determination of the judicial review applications in the light of the judgment of the European Court of Justice.

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