Calcium sulphate as a source of calcium, and the amino acid salts,
N-acetyl-L-cysteine and N-acetyl-L-methionine, may be included in
draft regulations amending the PARNUTS directive, which will allow
them to continue to be marketed...
European companies and researchers should share the profits made on
products using exotic plants such as ginseng and green tea with the
countries of origin, urges a European Commission communication
issued on Friday.
New European legislation on pharmaceuticals could override the
recently adopted food supplements directive and impact the future
of the supplements industry, according to legal experts.
The US Food and Drug Administration last week announced a ban on
the weight loss herbal ephedra, after an extended consultation
period including a court hearing.
A new policy on nutrition and health claims proposed by Australia
and New Zealand ministers could allow for 'biomarker claims',
subject to pre-market approval by the food standards agency.
Marketing of cholesterol-lowering foods looks set to become easier
with European bodies publishing favourable opinions on two plant
sterol manufacturers last week.
The US today enforces new regulations that require all food plants
to register with its Food and Drug Administration and food
importers to give the agency advance notice before shipments arrive
at ports or border crossings. But both...
New Zealand's Health Minister Annette King has provided no basis
for a joint authority with Australia to regulate the country's
dietary supplements industry, argues health products consultant Ron
Law in the New Zealand Herald...
Manufacturers of sports nutrition products have formed a new
alliance to better represent their trade in the face of a
forthcoming directive, set to tightly regulate foods and beverages
marketed to sportspeople.
Health food stores in New Zealand will today 'black out' products
threatened by the government's plans to regulate supplements under
a joint authority with Australia.
MEPs last week voted through amendments to the traditional herbal
medicinal products directive (THMPD) that will prevent it from
regulating herbal products sold under food law.
New Zealand's government looks set to renounce regulation of the
dietary supplement industry, in favour of a joint authority with
Australia. The news has provoked angry responses from manufacturers
who argue that they are facing...
Natural Products Expo Asia, opening in Hong Kong today, will run a
free seminar focusing on the new bioterrorism regulations, set to
impact all companies exporting ingredients to the US.
Ireland's food body this week opened a consultation process on its
website for the European Commission's recent proposed regulation on
fortified foods.
Health food stores and kava suppliers are celebrating a recent
decision by the Welsh government to revoke legislation that banned
the herb in the UK last year.
Australia's Therapeutic Goods Administration (TGA) has ordered a
consumer level recall of 99 bottles of Nature Made brand vitamin
supplements, being illegally sold in the country.
Australia's TGA, soon to be given new powers to regulate dietary
supplements after a recent government report, last week ordered a
recall of Vital brand Vitamin B complex capsules, after the
manufacturer alerted it to problems...
Last week's Codex meeting made significant progress in its bid to
set global standards on supplements but in Latin America
regulations are still variable and closer collaboration will be
necessary to improve regional trade, a...
The European Commission yesterday published a proposal for
regulation of the addition of vitamins, minerals and other
substances to foods, designed to allow free trade of fortified
foods in the European community.
The Codex committee charged with developing world trade standards
for nutritional and special dietary foods made significant progress
in draft guidelines for vitamins and mineral supplements this week,
including a historic agreement...
The Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses
yesterday agreed to abolish the 100 per cent RDA measure for
setting maximum levels of vitamins and minerals, as proposed in a
draft guideline.
An Australian government review of herbal and complementary
medicines looks set to provoke a wave of extensive reforms to the
sector, giving the national medicines body greater powers to
regulate natural health products.
The UK is to launch the world's first scheme to screen sports
supplements for contamination with illegal performance-enhancing
drugs, according to a report in the New Scientist this week.
The campaign against the new EU food supplements directive is
gathering pace as the Alliance for Natural Health announces it will
also take legal proceedings to see the directive declared invalid
under European law.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand has announced a review of the
safety of energy-boosting herbs, such as guarana and gingko biloba,
that could pose a threat to the booming energy drinks market.
Trade associations in the UK are taking legal action in an attempt
to hold off the EU food supplements directive, which threatens to
damage one of the biggest and most diverse natural products markets
in Europe.
Finland's National Food Agency has banned several food supplement
makers from repeat marketing of unsubstantiated claims in a
clampdown on the use of health claims.
Food Standards Australia and New Zealand is proposing to retain the
ban on adding kava to foods, but not dietary supplements regulated
under New Zealand regulations, and to keep the labelling statements
related to public health.
Members of the UK's herbal industry have proposed an overhaul of
current legislation to ensure stricter standards and safety for
those products not regulated by the new European Traditional
Medicinal Herbals directive.
The UK's medicines and healthcare products regulatory agency (MHRA)
says it is reviewing recent evidence on ginseng and is advising
women to avoid taking the herbal during pregnancy or lactation.
South Africa has joined numerous European countries by banning all
products containing the herbal remedy kava from sale. Yet another
market to be tackled by the coalition of kava campaigners launched
recently in Europe.
As with other trade issues, bringing the EU and US together on an
internationally recognised approach to health claims seems to be a
long way off, if ever achievable, concluded experts at a recent
seminar on health claims.
Biacore International has had its food analysis kit, used for the
rapid routine testing of the vitamin food supplement folic acid,
fully validated and certified as a Performance Tested Method by the
Association of Analytical Communities...
The EU's traditional herbal medicinal products directive will not
lead to the major loss of popular herbal products on the UK market
feared by many in the retail sector, suggests the latest estimate
from the country's medicines...
Finland's National Food Agency announced this week that it has
established an expert network to evaluate whether health claims
used to market foods, supplements and foods for particular
nutritional uses are adequately backed...
The Australian and New Zealand markets could soon see
cholesterol-lowering milks on sale, as the region's food agency
considers comments on a request from Parmalat Australia.
The British Nutrition Foundation has expressed concern in response
to the European Commission's proposal for a regulation on nutrition
and health claims. While understanding the need for regulation to
discourage misleading claims...
Products containing the herb Chelidonium majus should
include a warning label to consumers, Australia's Complementary
Medicines Evaluation Committee has advised.
The UK will ask the European Commission to develop a transparent
system of restrictions to prevent unhealthy foods being fortified
with vitamins, or health claims being made on fatty, salt-laden
products.
The proposed European regulation on nutrition and health claims
will severely restrict the marketing potential of supplement
makers, says the European Health Product Manufacturers Association
(EHPM), calling on the European Parliament...
The Food Safety Authority of Ireland is seeking views from Irish
industry on the European Community's proposed new regulation to
govern nutrition and health claims on foods.
Australia's Federal Court is to proceed with a class action against
a number of multinational vitamin companies for price fixing,
despite an appeal that the country did not have jurisdiction over
the companies.
Australia's health authorities are urging all companies still
storing recalled products made by Pan Pharmaceuticals to
immediately supply information on when the stock is being
destroyed, following mistaken sales of some Pan...
UN experts are to lower the safe intake level for methylmercury,
the most toxic form of mercury, in foods, after new data revealed
significant risks to human health from the substance.
Levels of carcinogenic PAHs in margarines are within recommended
limits, despite conflicting findings from a Swedish consumer
organisation, said Finland's national food agency this week.
