Posted on 09/14/2002 1:33 PM EDT by redbaiter
If you're one of those who find [herbal remedies] useful, however, you'd better start stockpiling now. A raft of EU legislation looks set to nip the natural medicine market in the bud: soon, that popular vitamin C, echinacea and zinc combination may not be allowed on the shelves. A shadow looms large over the alternative health sector. Estimates of the impact of this new legislation vary, but hundreds of vitamin and mineral supplements could be banned outright, while an as yet incalculable number of common herbal remedies will disappear unless consumers challenge it. The National Association of Health Food Stores claims that as many as three-quarters of its members could go out of business. The writing is on the wall for small British supplement companies, which will be forced to reformulate entire ranges and invest massively in applying for new product licences.
[snip]
The attack comes from four different pieces of legislation, one of which is already in force, another approved in principle. All are couched in the now familiar EU language of consumer safety and free trade. Currently, the UK, the Netherlands and Ireland have a far more permissive attitude towards supplements than other member states, and make available a wider range of higher-dose remedies. This approach is in line with those in the US, Australia, New Zealand and Canada. But those days are numbered. The idea behind the new regulations is that, irrespective of whether you are a healthy Cretan, living on fish, multiple fruit and vegetables and monounsaturated olive oil, or a typically sun-starved Brit, existing on nutritionally impoverished processed food, you should have the same range and strength of supplements at your disposal.
Excerpted - click for full article ^
Source:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/weekend/story/0,3605,790733,00.html