News

13th March 2002

Conservative MEPs win reprieve for British vitamins

The European Parliament today voted for a draft directive that will mean new regulations on food supplements in Britain and threaten the continued availability of over 300 products currently legally and safely on sale.

Despite opposition from Labour Members, however, Conservative MEPs won a three-year reprieve for these products, when an amendment put forward by Dr Caroline Jackson MEP, chairman of the Environment Committee, which will give small companies three years rather than 18 months to comply with new EU safety assessments, was approved.

Dr Jackson said: "This is a great improvement on what the Commission originally proposed, and there is now every chance that the products British consumers use will remain in our shops. I shall be working hard to see that the people reviewing these products do so openly, and work as quickly as possible.

"These safety assessments mean that British products will soon have new markets open to them, because previously national laws applied, and these could be used as barriers to our products. But now we have to ensure that we also preserve British consumers' rights to continue to buy the products they know and value"

Conservative Health spokesman John Bowis said: "The key issue now will be the permitted dosages for each item. Ideally, I would like to see a simplified approval procedure for items already on the market. If the Commission and its advisers get this wrong, thousands of consumers will find they can no longer buy the higher dosages to which they are accustomed. They will either pay more to buy more or they will buy from abroad on the internet, where of course there is no protection for the consumer at all."