§ Lord Clement-Jonesasked Her Majesty's Government:
What plans they have to compensate manufacturers and retailers for the cost of removing from shelves and destroying those safe and appropriately labelled products marketed in accordance with current government policy but which will become illegal in July 2005 under the provisions of the Food Supplements (England) Regulations on the basis that they contain ingredients missing from the list of permitted nutrients and nutrient sources. [HL5159]
§ The Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State, Department of Health (Lord Warner)The Food Supplements (England) Regulations 2003 make use of the derogation in Article 4 of the directive that allows member states to permit the continued marketing beyond 1 August 2005 of food supplements containing vitamins and minerals and their sources missing from the positive lists subject to the following conditions: that they were on the market when the directive came into force; that dossiers to support their addition to the positive lists have been submitted to the European Commission before 12 July 2005; and that the European Food Safety Authority has not given a negative opinion on such use.
The Government have no plans to compensate manufacturers or retailers for the costs of removing from sale any products that do not satisfy these conditions.