URGENT TOOLKIT
Make your Parliamentary Candidate aware of
the threat to consumer choice in vitamins and
supplements
February 2015
URGENT TOOLKIT ~ BRIEF YOUR WESTMINSTER CANDIDATES ON
PRESERVING CHOICE IN VITAMIN AND MINERALS SUPPLEMENTS ~
2015
Since our inception, Consumers for Health Choice (CHC) has fought tirelessly against efforts, originating
in the European Union, to end the access of consumers like yourself to safe and popular vitamin and
mineral supplements. This threat to set Maximum Permitted Levels (MPLs) in nutritional supplements at
an extremely low level, and so see the disappearance of thousands of well-established food
supplements has not gone away: indeed, there are signs that big manufacturing companies in this field
are pushing ahead to set these MPLs as soon as they can.
Ahead of the General Election on May 7th 2015, you have an excellent chance to make sure that your
new MP will stand up for your rights to maintain access to the safe health maintaining nutritional
products used by millions for many years. This toolkit is intended to help you brief the candidates in
your area on this issue and secure their support ahead of polling day.
It is thanks to your vital and invaluable support that we have been successful to date in halting the
European Commission’s plans to impose MPLs in supplements via the 2002 Food Supplements Directive.
If such plans were allowed to proceed, it would not only have a devastating impact on your freedom of
choice in this area but also on small and medium-sized specialist businesses in the health food sector. These
businesses, which depend on the sale of popular, high potency vitamins and minerals, would not be able to
compete with larger multi-national businesses that specialise in mass market, low dosage supplements.
Thanks in part to your recent help, CHC has already obtained the support of a number of Members of the
European Parliament, elected in May 2014. Such support will be crucial to countering any efforts to bring
forward MPLs. It is absolutely vital, however, that we also obtain support from the British Government,
whichever political party, or combination of parties, is in power after the forthcoming election.
Another reason why we need your support is that this year’s General Election may well also see an influx of
new MPs who are completely unaware of this issue. It is imperative that all consumers impress upon the
Parliamentary candidates in your area the strength of feeling that exists against the setting of MPLs and of
the dire consequences that would ensue for consumers if they were set.
With the General Election looming, your Parliamentary Candidates will be keen to secure your support and
are certain to respond positively to any request you make. Please make the most of this opportunity at this
crucial time and make them aware of this serious issue that you, as a voter and their prospective
constituent, would like their assistance in addressing.
As usual, to aid you with contacting your Parliamentary Candidate and making your views known, this toolkit
includes:
1.
2.
A draft letter or email for you to send to your Parliamentary Candidates, which you should feel free to
personalise.
A copy of the fully updated CHC Briefing Note which we would encourage you to enclose or attach.
Please forward any response you receive to CHC using our contact details, below: we can then follow
these responses up after the General Election and ensure that MPs are reminded of their promise of
support.
You can find out who your Parliamentary Candidates are, and their contact details, here:
https://yournextmp.com/
If you have any questions or comments then please do contact CHC at:
E: [email protected] T: 020 7463 0689 W: www.consumersforhealthchoice.com/
Draft Letter/Email to send to your Parliamentary Candidate ~
Name of Parliamentary Candidate
Constituency address
DATE
Dear [Salutation],
I am a consumer of natural health products in [insert constituency name] and I am writing to ask
you for your urgent assistance in protecting consumer choice in safe and well-established vitamin and
mineral supplements.
I have long been a supporter of Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), the leading consumer group
working to protect the rights of the public on natural health issues from the imposition of regulations
by the European Commission that would be detrimental to consumer choice.
CHC has worked for almost 20 years to maintain consumer access to safe, higher-potency vitamin and
mineral supplements. These products have long been under threat from developments in Europe,
namely the setting of maximum permitted levels (MPLs) as required by the Food Supplements Directive,
passed in 2002. You can read more about this in the briefing note prepared by CHC which is enclosed
with this correspondence, or at CHC’s website (https://www.consumersforhealthchoice.com/save-oursupplements/).
Such a development would not just put the availability of my choice of safe, popular supplements
unnecessarily at risk, it could lead to the closure of a substantial number of independent health food
stores and the loss of thousands of specialist retail and manufacturing jobs.
To date, there have been some tentative attempts to bring proposals forward to set these levels but
these attempts have been halted in the face of strong opposition from CHC and our supporters in
Brussels. We know that further attempts will be made through, and so it is vital that the next British
Government stands up for the interest of British consumers in the EU and uses its influence to block
any steps to bring in these MPLs.
Ahead of the forthcoming General Election, I am writing to ask for your support for CHC’s key aim to
maintain consumer choice in these vital health maintaining vitamin and mineral supplements. Such an
assurance would reassure me and my fellow consumers of the future of natural health products in
[insert constituency here] ahead of polling day on May 7th.
I look forward to hearing from you.
Yours sincerely,
Your Name
Your contact postal or email address
Briefing Note
Maximum Permitted Levels - The Food
Supplements Directive 2002/46/EC
2015
CONSUMERS NEED YOU TO HELP MAKE THEIR CONCERNS KNOWN!
The Food Supplements Directive
2002/46/EC
The EU Food Supplements Directive aims to
establish a single market in food supplements
throughout the European Union. To achieve this
goal, the Directive proposes the setting of
Maximum Permitted Levels (MPLs) for vitamins and
minerals, which would create uniform, low-level
maximum potency thresholds for these
supplements.
At present, over 100 million consumers across
Europe – many from here in the UK - regularly take
vitamin and mineral supplements. Some of these
supplements are of a higher potency but
nevertheless are safe and beneficial in assisting
with the maintenance of good health. The proposed
setting of MPLs will, however, result in lower
potency levels being set and, ultimately, the
prohibition of these popular supplements that have
been enjoyed safely for many years.
The move to weaken over-the counter supplements
is being forced by a large number of multinational
corporations who produce low-strength vitamins
and minerals. They are determined to secure the
earliest possible imposition of MPLs in order to
further their business interests by increasing the
sale of a more limited range of products across the
EU. Since these corporations produce low dosage
supplements, such a move would increase their
profit margins by eradicating their primary
competitors – small, specialist businesses.
Concerns about the setting of low-level MPLs have
been corroborated in feedback from high-level
meetings with senior officials at the European
Commission’s Directorate General for Health and
Food Safety (DG SANTE), which have confirmed
that restrictive MPLs are likely to be set well below
current safe practice in some EU Member States.
Impact
An Impact Assessment presented to DG SANTE
showed that at estimated MPLs, many thousands
of independent health food stores could close,
resulting in an even greater number of job losses.
In addition, this will increase the risk of consumers
in the UK being exposed to the dangers of products
from unregulated non-EU sources if they resort to
purchasing their supplements via alternative
methods, such as through the internet and mail
order sources.
It is imperative that concerns about the curtailment
of consumer choice and the devastation of the
small, specialist businesses are raised with the
Health Secretary and the Public Health Minister,
who will have responsibility for this issue within
their portfolio, once they have been appointed.
Over 286,000 consumers across the EU have
expressed their opposition to these plans and their
disastrous consequences.
If you are given the opportunity in this year’s
General Election to represent some of these
consumers in Parliament, please ensure that you
throw your support behind CHC’s campaign to
preserve consumer choice.
You can help - please use your
campaign website and social media to
show your support to CHC; we will
ensure that this support is highlighted
to voters in your constituency.
CHC can be found on Twitter and
Facebook at CHCSOS
saveoursupplements.org.uk
Further information: Consumers for Health Choice, Southbank House, Black Prince Road, London SE1 7SJ,
United Kingdom; Tel: 020 7463 0690 Email: [email protected]