FOOD SUPPLEMENTS DIRECTIVE

Early day motion 278, tabled 4 December 2002 by Brian Iddon (Labour). Signed by 221 members.

That this House notes that the Food Supplements Directive is now European law and will be implemented in stages through the introduction of statutory instruments; notes that the Directive includes a list of nutrients and nutrient sources which may be used in supplements and that there are rising 300 safe nutrient sources on the United Kingdom market which are missing from the list; further notes that unless full safety dossiers are submitted for consideration by the European Scientific Committee for Food by July 2005 these nutrients will be illegal; observes that the cost of commissioning research to include within a dossier and the compilation of such dossiers makes the task prohibitively expensive in all but a handful of cases and that some 270 safe and popular nutrient sources will be lost to the United Kingdom industry and its consumers; regrets that an over-cautious interpretation of Article 5 of the Directive will lead to the setting of unacceptably and unnecessarily low maximum permitted levels even for those nutrients which are allowed; and declines to approve the proposed statutory instruments implementing the Directive unless and until Her Majesty's Government secures an amendment to the Directive before it is fully implemented so as to allow to remain on the national market those products which would otherwise fall outside the Directive's technical restrictions.

Signatures by party: Conservative 89, Labour 82, Liberal Democrat 30, Labour/Co-operative 6, DUP 4, Plaid Cymru 3, Scottish National Party 3, UUP 3, Independent Conservative 1.