EU Supplement Ban Upheld -- Is U.S. Next?

The London Times is carrying the story:

The European Court of Justice approved the Food Supplements Directive even though the court's own Advocate-General advised that the Directive was invalid under EU law.

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The Directive was first approved by EU governments in 2002, and health food manufacturers were given until today - July 12, 2005 - to submit detailed scientific dossiers proving their ingredients were safe. Those supplements that failed to qualify would be banned.

Over the last three years, health food suppliers have either reformulated their goods, replacing natural substances with synthetic chemicals that already have EU approval, or waited as their legal challenge made its way through the courts.

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Today's deadline means that health food retailers and manufacturers have sent in hundreds of dossiers for their ingredients over the last week, leaving the current list of which products are banned and which are approved in flux.

The same rules now being imposed on vitamins and supplements by the EU are based on rulings by the World Health Organization (WHO) and have been approved as international law. The U.S. will also have to conform to these barbaric standards or be in violation of the WTO.

I've posted on this issue before. Click here to read more.