Kate Hoey – 2015 Parliamentary Question to the Department of Health

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Kate Hoey on 2015-02-10.

To ask the Secretary of State for Health, what assessment he has made of the potential effect on consumer choice represented by the European Commission’s plans to bring forward the setting of maximum premitted levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements through the food supplements directive.

Jane Ellison

No discussions have yet taken place with Commissioner Andriukaitis. The new European Commission has not announced any renewed plans to implement Article 5 of the Food Supplements Directive and the Government has not recently made an assessment of potential effects of maximum permitted levels of vitamins and minerals, either on consumer choice, or on British businesses. Our advice to United Kingdom manufacturers on safe daily dose levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements is based on the report of the UK’s Expert Group on Vitamins and Minerals. The industry has supported the use of these levels and the report is also used by some other member states as advice for safe upper levels.