New HFMA chair promises to battle ‘seemingly impossible amount’ of EU laws

10-Jun-2014 - Last updated on 11-Jun-2014 at 13:43 GMT

Vitabiotics’ Robert Taylor will be the new chairman of the UK Health Food Manufacturers’ Association (HFMA) succeeding Lynn Lord who has left after a year in the post. Ray Myers of Wassen takes Taylor’s vacated vice-chair seat.

Taylor promised to keep up the battle against “overly restrictive” EU regulations.

“As Chair I hope to help continue the work of increasing the positive profile of the HFMA in the UK and Brussels with policy makers and regulators, with the ultimate aim of minimising the damage of overly-restrictive new EU legislation,” Taylor said in a statement.

“This can only be achieved by being more closely involved when new legislation is first being formed and to build alliances to lobby effectively against the challenges we already face.”

He added: “On a practical level, I know how important it is for member companies, who are under huge time and resource pressures, to find their way through the seemingly impossible amount of new European regulations.”

“So I hope I can help HFMA to do even more in translating this legislation into easy-to-digest information and summaries that can be cascaded down to all levels within the member company for timely action when needed.”

HFMA executive director Graham Keen paid tribute to Lord who had helped, “the HFMA achieve real progress on key issues affecting our industry over the past year.”

“We warmly thank Lynn for a job well done over what has been a challenging 12 months for the Association, culminating in the successful outcome of the recent glucosamine Judicial Review.”

Vitabiotics is the UK's biggest food supplements manufacturer.