Eu to ban Vitamin and mineral supplements

[GREENMACHINE]

Vitamins - banned products still unclear

Imagine having to go to a dealer to buy vitamins

[Posted: Mon 18/07/2005]
By Deborah Condon

It is still unclear how many products will have to be removed from sale in health shops and pharmacies, following a recent ruling by the EU in relation to vitamins and minerals.

Many Irish consumers were angered following a ruling by the European Court of Justice last week, which upheld the European Commission's Food Supplements Directive. This directive, which comes into effect at midnight on July 31, contains an approved list of vitamins and minerals.



In theory, those supplements that are not included on the list will be removed from sale from that time. However the directive allowed for a ‘derogation’ until December, 2009.

Basically member states could allow the sale of supplements that are not on the approved list if their manufacturers submitted a 'safety dossier', containing scientific data and relevant information, by July 12. These dossiers had to be submitted to the local food authority - in this case, the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) - and then forwarded on to the European Food Safety Authority.

A spokesperson for the FSAI told irishhealth.com that approximately 100 dossiers have been received and they are currently being examined, 'however not all of these may be granted derogation’.

It is unclear at this point how many supplements did not submit dossiers and therefore how many products will have to be removed from shop shelves on August 1.

For more information on this directive and the issues involved, click on...

[GREENMACHINE]

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Major restrictions on vitamin sales

[Posted: Tue 12/07/2005]

By Deborah Condon

Major restrictions on the sale of vitamins and minerals throughout the EU, including Ireland, are to go ahead, following a ruling by the European Court of Justice.

The ruling upheld the validity of the European Commission's Food Supplements Directive, which was originally adopted in June 2002. According to the Commission, the main aim of this directive was to enable food supplements 'to be marketed freely across the EU while ensuring the safety of consumers'.

However as the directive established an 'approved list' of vitamins and minerals, as well as new rules on labelling, this essentially meant that around 200 vitamins and minerals would be banned from sale from August 2005.



A number of groups in Britain, including the Health Food Manufacturers' Association, attempted to stop the directive, arguing that it was too restrictive.

However the European Court has now upheld the directive. As a result, hundreds of products will have to be removed from Irish shop shelves by August.

Welcoming the court's ruling, EU Health Commissioner, Markos Kyprianou, insisted that the directive was designed to 'open the internal market and boost growth, while ensuring a high level of protection of public health'.

"With these dual goals in mind, we will look at the implementation of the directive to ensure that it is implemented in a transparent and timely manner and is the least restrictive that science will allow", Mr Kyprianou added.

However the Green Party has said it is disappointed with the ruling, insisting that it is 'less about consumer safety and more about commercialisation and harmonisation'.

"Diversity and choice are being replaced in the name of harmonisation. Consumers who purchase vitamins are making a conscious choice, whereas much of the food in our supermarkets contains unnecessary, undesirable chemicals, such as hydrogenated vegetable oil and artificial sweeteners", said Green Party TD, Paul Gogarty.

The Green Party would prefer if the EU prioritised the tightening of food additive regulations first, Mr Gogarty added.

Meanwhile Fine Gael MEP, Avril Doyle, has also criticised the ruling, which she described as a 'clear example of over-regulation'.

"For generations, people have used vitamins and supplements for health and wellbeing. Today's ruling will have an impact on the general public, who will be restricted in their use of alternative or holistic remedies and will also have an effect on trade, as health food stores and natural health practitioners will be restricted in what they can sell and recommend", Ms Doyle said.

[Sta11ion]

Its just another way for pharmacutical companys to make a bunk, restrict it to a prescription and know a bottle of vitamin b6 that cost $10 for a bottle of 250mg of a 100 is know worth $100. This is just the beginning.

[GREENMACHINE]

More...

Restrictions on the sale of vitamins
By Deborah Condon

Many Irish consumers were angered by a recent ruling of the European Court of Justice, which will lead to restrictions on the sales of certain vitamins and minerals throughout the EU, including Ireland.

The ruling upheld the validity of the European Commission's Food Supplements Directive, which was originally adopted in June 2002. According to the Commission, the main aim of this directive was to enable food supplements 'to be marketed freely across the EU while ensuring the safety of consumers'.

The directive, which comes into effect at midnight on July 31, 2005, contains an approved list of vitamins and minerals. This implies a ban on the sale of any vitamins and minerals that are not included in this approved list. However it is not as straightforward as that. It appears that some of these supplements may have a 'get out of jail free' card, however for others, their time on shop shelves may be almost up.



So which vitamins and minerals are affected? Does this mean that come August 1, 2005, the shelves in health shops will look significantly barer? There are a number of issues here.

First off - the approved list. What vitamins and minerals can continue to be sold? There are two parts to this. The directive lists vitamins and minerals that 'may be used for the manufacture of food supplements'. However it also lists the forms in which they must be used. The supplements on the approved list are:

Vitamins

-Vitamin A

-Vitamin D

-Vitamin E

-Vitamin K

-Vitamin B1

-Vitamin B2

-Niacin

-Pantothenic acid

-Vitamin B6

-Folic acid

-Vitamin B12

-Biotin

-Vitamin C

Minerals

-Calcium

-Magnesium

-Iron

-Copper

-Iodine

-Zinc

-Manganese

-Sodium

-Potassium

-Selenium

-Chromium

-Molybdenum

-Fluoride

-Chloride

-Phosphorus

(However as mentioned, the vitamins and minerals listed above have to be in a particular form to be used. For example, calcium is approved in a number of forms, including calcium carbonate and calcium chloride. However it is not approved in other forms, such as calcium fluoride and calcium sulphate.)

So which supplements are missing? According to the Irish Health Trade Association (IHTA) and the Irish Association of Health Stores (IAHS), there are around 300 nutrient forms which are not included. Both associations made a presentation to the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Health as far back as June 2003, voicing their concerns about this directive.

They emphasised that many of the nutrients not contained in the approved list 'are commonly used in food supplements and have been so for a very long time'.

"Basic mineral nutrients such as silicon, boron and sulphur are missing form the list, while fluoride, the need for which in human nutrition has not been established, is included. Commonly used substances such as selenium yeast are also omitted...Also the positive list excludes many of the newer and more easily absorbed nutrient forms such as amino acid chelates, the orotates and all yeast-based nutrient forms", the associations told the Oireachtas Committee.

So will all products containing these non-approved supplements be removed from shop shelves come August 1, 2005? Well that depends. The directive allows for a 'derogation' until December, 2009.



Basically, member states 'may allow in their territory the use of vitamins and minerals not listed', under two conditions. The first is that the substance in question was already being sold in the EU when the directive was originally adopted, i.e. 2002.

The second is that the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has not given 'an unfavourable opinion' in respect of the use of a supplement on the basis of a 'safety dossier'. These safety dossiers, which contain information such as reported adverse events, had to be submitted to the European Commission by EU member states by July 12, 2005.

This in itself was seen as a major problem. The IHTA and IAHS pointed out that these dossiers were extremely costly and time consuming to produce and as many food supplement companies are small to medium-sized enterprises, they simply would not have had the resources to complete them.

According to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI), it will grant derogation until December 31, 2009 for ingredients and ingredient sources 'where a dossier has been submitted to the FSAI and this dossier has been forwarded to the EFSA'.

Therefore any product that is granted derogation will be allowed to remain on sale. However commenting on this, David Adams, director of the UK Health Food Manufacturers' Association, emphasised that these dossiers only offer short-term derogation from the directive.

"After that, it depends on whether they actually get approval from the EFSA", he said

A spokesperson for the FSAI told irishhealth.com that around 100 dossiers were received by July 12 for supplements available in Ireland. These are currently being examined. It is not known at this point how many supplements did not submit dossiers and which therefore will have to be removed from shop shelves on August 1.

There is another element to the Food Supplements Directive, which may also have an effect on what you are purchasing in the future. This element of the directive, which does not come into effect for another 18 months, will dictate the maximum dose levels of all supplements. In other words, it will be illegal to sell products which contain levels higher than those laid down by the directive.

The concern is that this will be interpreted in a restrictive manner, so that only low dose supplements will be permitted.



Speaking to irishhealth.com, Phil Costigan, general secretary of the IHTA, said that some countries, including Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands, permit the sale of high dose supplements. To this end, these countries obviously wish this to continue when the decision on dosage levels is being decided.

"If I feel a cold coming on, I want to be able to take a tablet containing 1,000mg of vitamin C. If the dosage is reduced to, for example, 100 - 150mg, I'm not going to go out and buy multiple boxes to get the same dose. Likewise, I’m not going to want to take 10 tablets to get my 1,000mg dose, compared to the one I can currently take", Ms Costigan explained.

Organisations such as the IHTA will now focus on 'sustaining the derogations and securing adequate dosage levels here', she said.

"Here in Ireland, we are used to an easy supply of upper dosage levels on many of our supplements and we will be striving to influence decision making to support a continuance on this", Ms Costigan added.

The list of supplements that have already been granted derogation by the FSAI, i.e. that will remain on sale in Ireland until at least December 2009, can be viewed at...

http://www.fsai.ie/legislation/food_supp/index.asp

[GREENMACHINE]

Food Supplement Legislation


Food Supplement Dossier Submissions

The Food Supplements Directive 2002/46/EC came into force in July 2002 and was implemented in Ireland by the Food Supplements Regulations, S.I. 539 of 2003. The directive and these regulations apply from 1 August 2005 . The Directive lists vitamins and minerals and their chemical forms that can be used in supplements. However, ingredients not included in the directive's annexes may stay on the market if the product containing that ingredient was on sale before 12 July 2002 and a dossier on it has been submitted to the European Commission through Member states.

Ireland will grant derogation until 31 st December 2009 for ingredients and ingredient sources where a dossier has either been submitted to the Food Safety Authority of Ireland or to the relevant authority of another EU Member State and this dossier has been forwarded to EFSA. Proof of such a submission is required e.g. letters from the relevant competent authority stating that the dossier has been submitted to EFSA on the company's behalf and ideally a letter of receipt from EFSA. Companies who wish to use ingredients or ingredient sources in other Member States should check with the relevant competent authority on their requirements with respect to granting derogation.

The Food Safety Authority of Ireland has granted derogation for the ingredient sources listed in the table below allowing them to continue to be used in food supplements in accordance with Article 4 (6)(a) and (b) of Directive 2002/46/EC. These products (used by any operator) are allowed to remain on the market until 31 December 2009 providing EFSA has not given an unfavourable opinion. The table will continue to be updated as further dossiers are received

[RussianVodka]

OMG, stupid politicans

[SwoleCat]

Then they wonder why people love the black market so much, and why the streets are called home.

Don't want drama, don't set off a reason for the drama.

People are still gonna get what they need, believe that.

~SC~

[GREENMACHINE]

Bump.

[bor]

Stupid freakin' idiots.

[GREENMACHINE]

Bump this up for the other europe bro's.

[IronFreakX]

Ha , Ill fvcking steal my vitamins....No shit..I really would go into wherever theyre stored and steal them....I thot bout leaving money(I aint a theif , But goddamnit those are vitamins) but operation Vitamin smuggle...would cost alot of money and the risk is high...so I wouldnt leave any...oh btw...Im source posting...I sell vitamins

[chino777]

Its just another way for pharmacutical companys to make a bunk...

.. exactly.