Poland panel considers borderline supplements
By Shane Starling
NUTRAingredients.com: Europe
Poland has established a government-backed group briefed with developing criteria relating to the classification of a range of nutrients under either food or medicine law.
The Panel on Dietary Supplements will spend 4-6 months drawing up an electronic database of all on-market supplements and passing opinion on how they should be regulated.
The panel seeks a "precise differentiation between dietary supplements and medicines" with the objective of improving consumer "safety and to facilitate entry and functioning on the market for manufacturers and distributors", according to a post on www.polishmarket.com.
As is the case in many EU member states that are still determining which products should be classified as foods and which as medicines, Poland's panel is likely to classify products under three broad categories: food supplements, medicines and "borderline" products - those that have both food and supplement uses.
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ANH comment:
Poland shows its hand by joining the EU firing squad aimed at food supplements appears to be cosying up with restrictive regimes such as Germany and Belgium. It would seem that the EU is hellbent on following a course where nutrients that have been consumed safely for hundreds of years are now going to be reclassified as medicines - and all in the name of consumer safety! We have yet to see any plausible science on risk assessment to prove their case.
More worryingly when you read down towards the end of this article you see the bigger picture emerging regarding botanicals, entitled 'Botanicals Backlash'. Belgium is the latest to go on record saying that they will be taking a conservative approach to botanicals and reclassifying a number of 'borderline' herbs, such as echinacea and gingko, as medicinal!
For those of you who haven't yet felt enough incentive to get into this fight and support our campaign, hopefully you will be seeing enough of the writing on the wall to get off the sidelines and get stuck in.
Poland joins the EU firing squad with food supplements in its sights
- Date:
- 17 March 2008
- Comments:
- 0
Poland has recently established a government-backed panel to develop the criteria needed to classify a range of nutrients into two groups to be dealt with under either food or medicines law. And Belgium states it will be reclassifying botanicals such as echinacea and gingko as medicinal.
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