Dáil Éireann díospóireacht -
Tuesday, 26 Jun 2001

Vol. 539 No. 1

Written Answers. - Dietary Supplements Ban.

Deirdre Clune

Ceist:

264 Ms Clune asked the Minister for Health and Children if his attention has been drawn to a draft EU directive on dietary supplements which proposes to ban vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements for the prevention or treatment of illness; his views on the directive; and if he will make a statement on the matter. [18836/01]

Minister for Health and Children (Mr. Martin)

In its White Paper on Food Safety published in January 2000, the European Commission committed itself to laying down provisions for marketing of concentrated sources of nutrients, vitamins and minerals, that is, food supplements. Discussions among member states on this draft directive are currently at a very advanced stage. Representatives from my Department, the Permanent Representation of Ireland to the European Union and the Food Safety Authority of Ireland have attended EU meetings on this topic.

Traditionally, food supplements contain ingredients such as vitamins, minerals, amino acids, essential fatty acids, fibre, various plant and herbal extracts. As the task of covering products containing all these ingredients would be enormous and very complicated, the commission decided, for practical reasons, to deal only with products containing vitamins and minerals at this stage. The draft directive currently under discussion lays down a positive list of vitamins and minerals that may be used in food supplements, that is, only those vitamins and minerals listed in the annexe to the directive may be used in the manufacture of food supplements.

The draft directive does not ban vitamins, minerals and other dietary supplements intended for the prevention or treatment of illness. A product which explicitly or implicitly claims to treat or prevent an illness would be classified as a medicinal product and would require a product authorisation from the Irish Medicines Board before being placed on the market in this country. Such a product could not therefore be sold as a foodstuff.

I welcome this initiative for a legislative framework on food supplements and consider that the proposal is an overall balanced approach. There are still some issues in the draft directive that need to be resolved at European level and I look forward to the outcome of these discussions with interest.