Move to end restrictions on vitamin supplements

Date: 08/10/1998

By Myles Neligan

SOME EU countries could soon be forced to scrap laws restricting the sale of vitamin and mineral food products to pharmacies.

Industry Commissioner Martin Bangemann is expected to come forward with proposals to deregulate the sale of nutritional supplements early next year if EU scientific experts decide that there is a reliable way of setting maximum safe consumption levels.

The experts are not expected to reach a final decision until December, but if they can agree on common limits for safe consumption, a proposal to lift the restrictions on where supplements can be sold is likely to follow within weeks.

That would put the Commission on a collision course with countries such as Germany and France, where maximum consumption levels for vitamins are based on the minimum levels needed to satisfy basic nutritional requirements.

In these countries, many food supplements can be sold only in pharmacies under medical prescription.

However, in Ireland, the UK and the Netherlands, where most vitamins and minerals are classified as foods, the same products can be sold in supermarkets and corner shops.

Health food manufacturers and consumer organisations are solidly behind moves to extend this more liberal approach to other Union countries.

"We are talking about food products and it is nonsense to say that their consumption should be legally limited to the basic nutritional requirement," said Simon Pettman, director of EU affairs at the European Health Food Product Manufacturers' Association (EHPMA). "A couple of sardines, for instance, contain 28 times the recommended daily allowance of vitamin B12."

Supporters of deregulation also argue that more restrictive regimes put consumers at a grave disadvantage.

"There are major consumer issues here," said Harry Masterton-Smith, chairman of Consumers for Health Choice (CHC).

"By restricting sale of these products to pharmacies, you are not only reducing consumer access to them, but also giving manufacturers and retailers an opportunity to charge higher prices."

CHC also argues that deregulating the EU market for vitamin and mineral supplements would provide a boost to an industry which is already worth more than 6 billion ecu per year.

The EU experts charged with investigating ways of setting upper safe consumption levels will take into consideration existing guidelines on consumer limits drawn up by the United Nations' Codex Alimentarius Commission.

But even if they do clear the way for Bangemann to propose a liberalisation of the EU food supplement market, resistance from national governments may be too strong to overcome.

Although a decision on any proposal would be taken by qualified majority vote, it could be difficult to get enough member states to support the move.

A previous attempt to harmonise national legislation along less restrictive lines failed in 1992 in the face of strong opposition from 12 EU countries.