Without the right to truthful information about nutrition and natural remedies, our right to control our own bodies and our own health is meaningless.
That's why the US Supreme Court, Thomas v Western States said, "We have previously rejected the notion that the Government has an interest in preventing the dissemination of truthful commercial information in order to prevent members of the public from making bad decisions with the information."
That important legal protection... the right to make even "bad" decisions about our own lives, is not respected by bureaucracy anywhere in the world, as we see with the US FDA's continual efforts to subvert Americans' rights by appealing to "HARMonization" with international agency restrictions.
It is certainly not a respected legal position in Europe where the Civil Code treats people like subjects, not sovereign citizens.
A good example is the recent decision of the food bureaucracy to simply deny 97% of all the Health Claims that were presented to it under the EU Food Supplements Directive.
“23-Jun-2008 - The European Commission has culled its gargantuan nutrition and health claims list from more than 40,000 to 1500 as the health claims process moves closer to fruition in January, 2010. … [Some claims] were deemed inappropriate for want of supporting data or were making claims about foods or food supplements that were not legally available in the EU… The nutrition and health claims regulation was enacted last year and seeks to harmonize claims across the … EU's 27 member states…”
foodnavigator. com/news/ng.asp?n=86073&c=gbrnO2ewSG3%2BoFrFccmRkw%3D%3D
That means that nearly all Health Claims have been summarily denied, even before the public process that was supposed to vette those claims!
This is too bad for Europeans who want to use natural remedies and a warning to Americans that health freedom requires vigilance.
Join the Health Freedom eAlert system and stay up-to-date on all such developments:
http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/index.php?page_id=187
Showing posts with label EU Food Regulation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label EU Food Regulation. Show all posts
Thursday, June 26, 2008
Saturday, August 11, 2007
EU Backs Off Banning Natural Vitamins
Congradulations to Dr. Robert Verkerk, leader of the UK's Alliance for Natural Health - www.alliance-natural-health.org !!
Natural sources of vitamins and minerals, which could have been subject to banning in the EU will escape the strictures of the EU Food Supplements Directive (FSD). These ingredients will now be regulated as foods. This news is contained in new letter from the EU that reverses the position of the EC's legal unit given to ANH in March 2006 and upholds ANH's interpretation of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) 2005 ruling that Dr. Verkerk viewed as protective for natural source supplements.
The letter, received in the past few days, from Mr. Demetris Vryonides of the Legal Affairs Unit and Mr. Basil Mathioudakis, of the Food, Law, Nutrition and Labeling Unit, states: "We consider that wheat germ oil can be used in food supplements without having to be authorised and included on Annex II of the Directive. For similar reasons the dossiers on mixed carotenoids, food derived folates, [and two proprietary palm blends containing carotenoids and tocotrienols respectively] will not be processed further." The ANH had submitted many natural source products to the EU for inclusion in the "positive list" of allowed supplement ingredients. The letter indicates, in effect, that these ingredients will not be subject to banning.
Dr Robert Verkerk, ANH executive and scientific director, said "We are delighted to finally have this clarification from the European Commission on a point of law the ANH has been aware of since the ECJ ruling. The wider implications of this for the industry are farreaching and it effectively opens the door to functional foods and supplements containing nutrients derived from natural sources."
The US and EU regulate supplements differently, with the US taking the Constitutionally mandated Common Law approach that whatever is not prohibited is allowed; the EU's legal approach is essentially whatever is not permitted is forbidden. This limited victory for Health Freedom shows that engaging the regulatory system, as ANH has, can sometimes have beneficial results.
Natural sources of vitamins and minerals, which could have been subject to banning in the EU will escape the strictures of the EU Food Supplements Directive (FSD). These ingredients will now be regulated as foods. This news is contained in new letter from the EU that reverses the position of the EC's legal unit given to ANH in March 2006 and upholds ANH's interpretation of the European Court of Justice (ECJ) 2005 ruling that Dr. Verkerk viewed as protective for natural source supplements.
The letter, received in the past few days, from Mr. Demetris Vryonides of the Legal Affairs Unit and Mr. Basil Mathioudakis, of the Food, Law, Nutrition and Labeling Unit, states: "We consider that wheat germ oil can be used in food supplements without having to be authorised and included on Annex II of the Directive. For similar reasons the dossiers on mixed carotenoids, food derived folates, [and two proprietary palm blends containing carotenoids and tocotrienols respectively] will not be processed further." The ANH had submitted many natural source products to the EU for inclusion in the "positive list" of allowed supplement ingredients. The letter indicates, in effect, that these ingredients will not be subject to banning.
Dr Robert Verkerk, ANH executive and scientific director, said "We are delighted to finally have this clarification from the European Commission on a point of law the ANH has been aware of since the ECJ ruling. The wider implications of this for the industry are farreaching and it effectively opens the door to functional foods and supplements containing nutrients derived from natural sources."
The US and EU regulate supplements differently, with the US taking the Constitutionally mandated Common Law approach that whatever is not prohibited is allowed; the EU's legal approach is essentially whatever is not permitted is forbidden. This limited victory for Health Freedom shows that engaging the regulatory system, as ANH has, can sometimes have beneficial results.
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