News

23rd January 2002

Consumers must be free to choose over vitamin supplements

John Bowis – Conservative Health & Consumer Affairs spokesman and Member of the European Parliament for London – has spoken out against proposals in the European Parliament this week that threaten to restrict choice of availability of vitamin supplements on which many people depend.

Speaking from the European Parliament in Brussels John Bowis said:

“In the European Parliament I have been fighting for British consumers to have the right to choose. A proposal from the European Commission threatens to restrict choice and availability of vitamin supplements for British consumers. The single market should promote freedom of choice, not restrict it. The nanny-state approach is the wrong one and would be counter-productive.”

“Many of my constituents have informed me, that they depend on food supplements such as vitamins, minerals and plant extracts and it is right that we defend the rights of consumers who want to buy these products. Conservatives want food supplements to be regulated by setting an upper safety limit, but leaving consumers and their advisers to decide what level below that to take.”

“By contrast, the approach of the Commission is far more prescriptive. If applied, it will cause unnecessary anguish and cost to hundreds of thousands of people. Either they will have to buy more items to keep the same dosage (thus doubling the cost), or they will have to purchase them from abroad, probably via the Internet where there are no safety regulations.”

Notes: Germany & France have different systems to the UK’s, Ireland’s & Holland’s. In 1943 American GIs fighting in Europe were given a recommended minimum daily allowance of vitamins to prevent scurvy and beri beri. That minimum level has come to be the German & French maximum above which products are deemed to be pharmaceuticals.