Poland is failing to recognise EU laws that promote free trade across member states when it comes to food supplements – and has been given two months to alter its laws or face EU court action.
Football governing body FIFA’s chief medical officer claims that nutritional supplements will not boost the performance of athletes “based upon the scientific evidence”.
Changes in European Union food laws have caught industry hopping, says Alan Ruth, CEO of the Irish Health Trade Association. It could do well to look across the Atlantic to the pro-active trade groups there when it comes to self-promotion…
Athletes should avoid taking food supplements because they are overpriced, don’t boost performance and could provoke doping violations, an article in online daily news site, Slate, has said.
Food supplements and herbal products are the safest bodily inputs with the risk of death of using them less than 1 in 10 million, about as likely as being struck and killed by lightning, according to a report from the Alliance for Natural Health International...
Food supplements are ideally suited for online sales: stable, light, high-value, popular with consumers. It is therefore no surprise that online food supplement sales are on the rise with the promise of lower prices and home delivery.
An international court this month fingered food supplements as the most likely source of the banned stimulant clenbuterol in the blood of 2010 Tour de France winner, Alberto Contador, even as a leading European testing service says it has never encountered...
The Italian food supplement market is showing no signs of a slowdown despite the country’s well-documented financial problems, with annual growth rates steady at 10% and fed by high quality products and broadening consumer interest.
Recommended Daily Allowances (RDA) and upper safe limits for nutrients in food supplements will be on the agenda this week at a congress in Buenos Aires organised by The International Alliance of Dietary/Food Supplement Associations (IADSA).
A study that found 75% of herbal products on sale in the UK were not adequately labelled with safety information has been criticised for mischaracterising the majority of products it assessed like ginseng, ginkgo and St John's wort.
The food supplements industry has expressed disappointment it was not given more credence in the face of a recent UK Department of Health (DOH) dietary survey that highlighted several significant dietary shortfalls.
Industry response - NHS report on food supplements
The UK and European food supplements industry has hit back at a recent UK National Health Service (NHS) report that largely cast supplements as being ineffective, and recommended ‘a balanced diet’ as the best way to achieve optimum nutrition.
Belgian supplier Synaco is targeting an off-patent magnesium vector that has never been commercialised at the food supplements market, the company has announced.
The Polish over-the-counter (OTC) market may be slowing due to lower sickness numbers, but food supplements continue to perform strongly, according to a new report from PMR Publications.
Adapting to changing rules governing food supplements in the European Union is the central theme of an upcoming workshop hosted by Brussels-based consultancy, European Advisory Services (EAS).
An Italian delegation from the Italian Ministry of Health told the European Health Claims Alliance conference in Brussels last week of reservations it holds transposing the 2006 nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) into the Italian legislature.
A European Court of Justice ruling that backs safety as the guiding principle in the establishment of upper safe limits (USLs) for nutrients used in food supplements in individual member states, has been welcomed by European industry groups.
The EU Parliament Petitions Committee have voted to keep open five petitions that question the European Commission’s proposal to limit maximum levels of vitamins and minerals in the EU bloc under the Food Supplements Directive.
Cross-party backing for the bid to keep high potency supplements on UK retail shelves is evidenced by a motion in the UK parliament today again calling for the EU Commission to avoid imposing maximum permitted levels (MPLs) on food supplements, claims...
Synadiet, the French Dietary and Food Supplements Manufacturers Association, said it is to begin a mainstream media campaign to counter the negative stories that followed the launch of a monitoring programme by a government agency.
The campaign to ensure higher potency food supplements can remain on the UK market is stepping up a gear with a motion tabled in the UK Parliament seeking the prime minister to intervene directly.
With increasing dietary intake of food supplements in France, a government programme to monitor their consumption and any undesirable side effects arising from their use is underway.
The UK’s Food Standards agency has published a blog entry dismissing an internet conspiracy theory that Codex Alimentarius is preparing to ban dietary supplements.
The UK Health Food Manufacturers' Association (HFMA) has defended its members against a UK professor who last week poured scorn on the food supplements industry by slamming many supplements as useless or even harmful.
The likes of vitamin A and vitamin C are a waste of money for most people and can even be detrimental to health, a UK-based nutrition professor has told the British Science Festival.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has completed the assessment of more than 500 vitamin and mineral dossiers it began scrutinising in 2005, with few surprises, and little reformulation required of industry as a result.
More than a quarter of French women used food supplements over the past 12 months – more than twice the number of men, according to a government agency survey on French dietary habits.
The Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC) has adopted new provisions for food supplements, including recommendations on the substantiation of health claims.
The European Food Safety Authority (EFSA) has issued negative safety opinions on forms of calcium, magnesium, iron, chromium and selenium for use in food supplements.
UK whey-based performance nutrition specialist, Volac, has become the first raw ingredients supplier to meet the stringent requirements of testing programme, Informed-Sport.
Belgium has officially authorised the use of of CoEnzyme Q10 in food supplements at levels of 200mg, in a move that may be followed in other European Union countries, and potentially all of them, if mutual recognition principles are pursued.
The ongoing slide of global capitalism is decimating industries, but the food supplements industry is not one of them as fraught consumers turn to its potential low-cost, anti-medical, wellness promise.
Dr Gareth Morgan, a partner in the London office of European law firm Taylor Wessing, says a recent European Court of Justice verdict may have a liberating effect on the European food supplements market.
The global economic slump has hit the buoyant Polish food supplements market that has shown rampant recent growth of more than 20 per cent annually, according to Polish market analyst, PMR.
The European Botanical Forum (EBF) has welcomed the European Court of Justice’s (ECJ) judgement against Spain for not applying the principle of mutual recognition in its policy on botanical food supplements.
The European Responsible Nutrition Alliance (ERNA) says there is little cause for concern about the European Commission’s position on maximum permitted levels (MPLs) for vitamins and minerals in food supplements and functional foods across the bloc.
Adding nutrients such as some herbal extracts, omega-3s, probiotics, glucosamine and more to the Food Supplements Directive (FSD) is impractical and unworkable, the European Commission has stated.
A Brussels workshop has highlighted global regulatory issues affecting the food supplements industry, and found many companies are unclear about law changes that directly affect them.
A website designed to educate consumers about the “threat to vitamins and minerals from the Foods Supplements Directive” has been launched in the UK by the British actress Jenny Seagrove.
Investment from local, Western and Chinese companies as well as wealthier, increasingly well-educated consumers are driving rapid growth in the Russian food supplements market.
Mooted restrictions on high-dose food supplements by various pieces of European food law are disproportionate to the public risk posed, according to pan-European law reform group, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH).
The need for ongoing lobbying and industry effort has been reiterated at a Dublin health foods and supplements convention, with Irish right wing Member of the European Parliament (MEP), Kathy Sinnott, calling on the industry to up its game or face extinction.
French supplier Fytexia has launched three specialty ingredients on
the Chinese market in a bid to tap into the growing numbers
consuming food supplements in the world's fastest growing economy.
Food supplements should be exempt from European nutrient profiling
regulations because their fat, salt and sugar levels are scant
enough not to warrant concern, according to an industry group.
The first summary of responses to the EC discussion paper on
vitamin and mineral levels was presented in Brussels last week,
said to have identified the principle problems ahead of the next
stage.
The UK-based lobby group the Alliance for Natural Health said today
that it has commissioned independent experts to develop a new
approach to regulating food supplements to replace that proposed by
the 2002 European directive, already...
