§ Mr. HainTo ask the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food (1) if he intends to support the European Commission view that dietary supplements with a greater strength than that in food should be classified as medicines and sold as such, regardless of whether the manufacturers made medical claims for them;
(2) if he will make a statement about European Community proposals to restrict the availability of dietary supplements and his assessment of the consequences of so doing to both consumers and practitioners.
§ Mr. MacleanThe European Commission have not issued proposals for legislation on dietary supplements but a discussion paper which presents various options for consideration by member states. One option would be to introduce maximum permitted daily doses for dietary supplements containing certain vitamins and minerals known to be toxic in excess. The Government support this proposal although we have not yet reached a firm view on the limit that would be appropriate for individual substances. The consequences of introducing maximum daily doses would depend on the limits actually set. But in principle such limits would protect consumers by preventing the sale of high dose products to consumers of food although such products would still be available for proper medicinal purposes.