Last week, the Committee for Nutrition and Dietary Foods of Codex Alimentarius, an international food standard setting body, met in Germany, discussing matters ranging from nutrients to baby foods, from sustainable health care to the promotion of healthy foods. The National Health Federation (NHF), an international non governmental organization representing consumers and practitioners in the natural health area, was there to keep tabs and intervene in defense of health freedom.

A Codex Alimentarius Commission meeting in Rome, earlier this year - Image: Sepp

The three NHF delegates could speak, but only national health authorities really have a say, and only when it pleases the chairman of the meeting, Dr Rolf Grossklaus, who is also the head of the ultra-conservative - meaning they're opposed to supplements - German Federal Risk Assessment Institute. Accordingly, progress was all in the direction of more control, tighter limits, and less freedom to choose for you and me.

It's the European model that is being followed, according to the NHF. No wonder, that model was worked out by the Germans and it's being exported to the US next. The FDA seems content - they have always wanted a good reason to clamp down on those nasty supplements. Vitamins have become a mainstream health enhancer and a real thorn in the eye of the pharmaceutical industry, which the FDA is set up to protect.

Here is what the NHF says about the meeting:

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CODEX MOVES CLOSER TO EU BLUEPRINT
November 18, 2007
(National Health Federation report - original here)

The 29th session of the Codex Committee on Nutrition and Foods for Special Dietary Uses, held at Bad Neuenahr, Germany, ended on Friday, November 16, 2007, following a week of deliberations. This Codex committee, more than any other, is deciding the fate of international principles, guidelines, and standards affecting natural health products and health claims. The U.S.-based, international non-governmental organization (INGO), the National Health Federation (NHF), was the only INGO present representing consumers' rights to freedom of choice in healthcare, and its three-person delegation was responsible for more interventions during the course of the meetings than all other INGOs put together.

The NHF and its European partner organization, the Alliance for Natural Health (ANH), have long argued that risk assessment of nutrients could pose one of the greatest threats to the future availability of food supplements used for the purpose of promoting health by millions of people around the world. The ANH has recently released a position paper that demonstrates major flaws in proposed risk-assessment and risk-management procedures, which, unless modified, will result in the European Commission setting, within the next two years, excessively low maximum permitted levels for food supplements to be sold throughout the European Union. This paper demonstrated that, for example, the maximum permitted beta-carotene level in supplements could be less than that found in two carrots, while that for selenium could be less than that found in two brazil nuts.