The IAHS has been a vocal opponent of European regulations such as the Food Supplements Directive (FSD) and the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive (THMPD), which it perceives as "potentially annihilating" to small to medium enterprises (SMEs) and the relatively liberated Irish market in general.

With these concerns in mind the IAHS is urging its members to vote 'no' to the Lisbon Treaty in Thursday's national referendum. Ireland is the only EU member state to be putting the implementation of the Lisbon Treaty's mandates across the bloc to the vote.

Polling indicates the result is too close to call for the Treaty signed in December by leaders of all 27 member states and which is expected to be ratified across the EU on January 1, 2009.

IAHS spokesperson Erica Murray told NutraIngredients.com there was a disconcerting air of complacence among large sections of the healthy foods and supplements industry, some of which had resigned themselves to "draconian Brussels laws".

Regulation rethink

"We are of the view there is still very much to play for," she said. "That is why we are opposing the Lisbon Treaty which seeks to further centralise power in Europe which leaves the smaller players not to mention consumers in the cold. There has got to be a rethink on this."

Maximum levels for nutrients in food supplements as well as classification protocols in the herbal area, are two areas where industry can gain much by continued lobbying, she said.

"If levels are set too low, there will be an enormous attrition in the industry in Ireland, the UK, the Netherlands and anywhere else where high-dose products have an established place in the market," Murray said.

"The problem is that these kinds of products tend to be produced by small manufacturers, and they will be decimated if levels are set too high, or herbal registrations are required for products currently classified as food supplements."

She said many food supplements manufacturers falsely believed the FSD would act as a safe haven for certain herbal products when it would not.

Some trade groups were compromised in their ability to defend the rights of smaller companies, Murray observed, because they also represented larger players that were less likely to be affected by the changes as they tended to trade in the low-dose products that may become the norm across the EU.

"While not against the EU in principle, it is patently clear that Europe has not been good for the natural products industry, or for freedom of choice in healthcare," said IAHS president, Jill Bell, "The Lisbon Treaty seems set to further facilitate erosion of individual rights and choices."