§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he will make it his policy to seek an amendment to the Food Supplements Directive prior to its full implementation to allow member states to permit onto their own national markets those products which fall outside the technical restrictions of that Directive but which the competent authority accepts as safe and appropriately labelled; and if he will make a statement. [84523]
§ Ms BlearsThe Government has no plans to seek any amendments to the Food Supplements Directive. It has already secured provisions which enable Member States to allow the continued sale of products which do not comply with the compositional requirements up to 31 December 2009.
§ Mr. Austin MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health how many nutrients and nutrient sources on the United Kingdom market are absent from the list of permitted nutrients included in the annexes to the Food Supplements Directive; and what estimate he has made of the cost of(a) commissioning the research and (b) producing a dossier to the standards required by the European Scientific Committee for Foods for consideration for approval to be given for the addition of such missing nutrients to the annexes in the future. [84525]
§ Ms BlearsAccording to information provided by industry, the list of permitted nutrients included in the annexes to the Food Supplements Directive excludes six nutrients (six minerals) and some 270 individual nutrient sources used in food supplements currently on the United Kingdom food supplements market. The costs of producing dossiers will largely depend upon the amount of new safety data that needs to be gathered, and will vary between individual cases.
§ Mr. Andrew MitchellTo ask the Secretary of State for Health whether he has received from(a) industry and (b) the Food Standards Agency a list of those nutrients missing from the lists of approved nutrients and nutrient sources contained within the annexes of the Food Supplements Directive; what information he has received from industry as to which of those nutrients are the subject of projects to prepare adequate dossiers for consideration by the European Union Standing Committee for Foods; and what steps he intends to take to ensure the remaining nutrients are added to those annexes in the future. [84574]
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§ Ms BlearsUnited Kingdom industry representatives have sent to the Food Standards Agency a list of those nutrients missing from the lists of approved nutrients and nutrient sources in the annexes to the Food Supplements Directive. The same representatives have also sent to the Agency a list of dossiers being considered by industry for preparation and submission to the EU Scientific Committee for Foods (SCF). These dossiers cover 51 sources of 17 vitamins and minerals. As required by the Directive, the Food Standards Agency will forward to the Commission any such dossiers submitted to the Agency by industry for submission to the SCF.