§ Lord Clement-Jonesasked Her Majesty's Government:
What recent representations they have received from individual companies, trade organisations or consumer bodies about nutrients which are currently permitted for use in food supplements in the United Kingdom but which are omitted from the list of permitted nutrients set out in Annexes 1 and 2 of the Food Supplements Directive. [HL2072]
§ Baroness AndrewsA number of individual companies, trade organisations and lobby groups have recently suggested that the Government should seek an amendment to the Food Supplements Directive to allow the continued sale in the United Kingdom of safe and appropriately labelled food supplements even if they lie outside the technical restrictions of the directive.
During negotiations the Government fought hard to secure the provisions in Article 4 of the directive, which enable member states to allow the continued sale of products that do not comply with the compositional requirements up to 31 December 2009 provided certain criteria are met. The Government are taking advantage of these provisions and have no plans to seek a further amendment to the directive. Negotiations were finished some time ago and it is not likely either that the Commission would be willing to reopen them now or that there would be support from a majority of other member states for such an amendment.