Nov

Government response to petition ‘Vitamins’

Recently I signed a petition asking the Prime Minister to “oppose the adoption of the Codex Alimentarius (WHO/UN) proposals for restriction of the presently freely available herb/vitamin/mineral food supplements.”

The Details of Petition were as follows:

“The principle of self medication with herbal/vitamin/mineral food supplements would be restricted to ‘prescription only’ status, if the Codex Alimentarius is applied in this country.

Since the NHS priorities are ill health diagnosis and treatment, the good health preservation that supplements provide will be inaccessible to the majority of our population and the cost to the NHS will increase, and the health of the population will decline.”

Here is the Government’s response

There are no current or planned Codex Alimentarius proposals that require the UK to change the controls on vitamin and mineral or botanical food supplements.

The Codex Alimentarius Commission was created in 1963 to develop food standards and guidelines. One of the main purposes of Codex’s work is to protect the health of consumers.

Codex texts and guidelines are not enforceable in law and Codex member countries are not obliged to reflect their requirements in domestic legislation.

In the UK, food supplements are regulated under the European Food Supplements Directive 2002/46/EC which came into effect in the UK in 2003 and has applied since 2005.

The Directive is implemented into national UK law by the Food Supplements Regulations (England) 2003.

There are no plans to make vitamin and mineral or botanical food supplements available on prescription only.

Herbal remedies are subject to separate controls and are overseen by the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Authority.

Herbal remedies do not fall within the scope of Codex guidelines.
An outline of Codex, its activities and the UK’s involvement is available at:www.food.gov.uk/foodindustry/regulation/Codexbranch/.

So all in all a small victory for those of us who choose the ounce of prevention rather than the pound of cure!