Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive

Nutri Eire

Does anyone know what will no longer be allowed to be sold as of April 30th as nobody seems to have a complete answer?

See link below for story ans also transcript below

http://www.irishhealthstores.com/news.php

The vast majority of herbal products will no longer be available for purchase by consumers after 30th April this year, due to onerous regulation under the Traditional Herbal Medicinal Products Directive?

Food supplements (i.e. vitamins and minerals) will become increasingly unavailable at effective dosages under the Food Supplements Directive? The Irish public has been availing themselves of these levels for the past 40 years to promote and safeguard their health.

Adelie

Interesting. I don't know the answer to your questions but there seems to be more information on the Europa Food Safety site

Here is the directive, which lists off a load of vitamins/minerals which can be sold but says that "other substances with a nutritional or physiological effect used as ingredients of food supplements should be laid down at a later stage".

And there is another interesting document about setting maximum dosage levels which proposes for example that Vitamin D supplements be limited to 35μg/1400IU per dose.

Most of the information is either written in legalese and is difficult to read, or else it reads more like a proposal and it's not clear what the actual final regulations will be.

Maybe someone else can pinpoint the final regulations if they exist yet.

Nutri Eire

What do you think is the background this, is it been pushed by other industries protecting their own?

Adelie

I don't know the background. It could be just the EU desire to regulate EVERYTHING. They do have a point, I mean people can do themselves serious harm using supplements. And maybe it will help stop people being taken advantage of by being sold snake oil?

But on the other hand the evidence behind a lot of substances and the ideal doses seems to be controversial or inconclusive, so how can they correctly regulate them? Like why does that document propose to limit Vitamin D dosage to 1400IU when the USA has 4000IU as the upper limit? Not saying either is correct just that a lot of the rules are bound to be arbitrary.

Nutri Eire

Adelie wrote: »

I don't know the background. It could be just the EU desire to regulate EVERYTHING. They do have a point, I mean people can do themselves serious harm using supplements. And maybe it will help stop people being taken advantage of by being sold snake oil?

But on the other hand the evidence behind a lot of substances and the ideal doses seems to be controversial or inconclusive, so how can they correctly regulate them? Like why does that document propose to limit Vitamin D dosage to 1400IU when the USA has 4000IU as the upper limit? Not saying either is correct just that a lot of the rules are bound to be arbitrary.

I totally agree with you but a lot of people who have been taken herbs for many years will get a shock come April 30th when this directive comes into law. Some of these herbs have been in use for god knows how long.

Next on the EU's list are vitamins, the allowable dosages will be so low that it won't worth while manufacturing them.

Nutri Eire

Below is a small list of products that will no longer be on the shelf from April 30th from one of the worlds biggest Health Supplement Manufacturers. Expect the list to grow as April 30th arrives.

Black Cohosh
Butcher’s Broom
Cat's Claw
Devil’ Claw
Echinacea
Echinacea / Goldenseal / Cat’s Claw Complex
Feverfew
Gold Specific Prostate Support
Herbal Female Complex
Olive Leaf / Echinacea Complex
Pau d’Arco
Saw Palmetto
Saw Palmetto Opuntia
Lycopene Complex
Scutellarie
Valerian Root

Edwardius

Are these products going to be removed completely or just be available on prescription? Wonder if this is €€€€€€ related.

Nutri Eire

It is my understanding that they will not be available in any form.

Edwardius

Nutri Eire wrote: »

It is my understanding that they will not be available in any form.

Damn. Thanks for the reply though!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9fEjJ4Ecy9Q

Nutri Eire

I should have much more information and a more complete list during the first week of April so I will keep ye up to date.

Dark Phoenix

Thanks for the heads up on this. Very dissappointed to find out its happening as I use a few of those products but at least I can stock up before hand

Nutri Eire

As far as I know it is up to each manufacturer to submit details of their products to the Irish Medicines Board (Proof of claims, History of use etc....) What is expected to happen is that the high cost of compiling these dossiers for the IMB will mean that many of the smaller players in the market will not have the financial means to do so.

If company A gets a particular herb passed by the IMB it does not mean that company B can sell this herb also, each company has to get their own individual products approved.

Their will be less choice with regards to herbal medicines and and also the number of brands. The list above is a preliminary one from a company that is a market leader.

I am no expert on this issue and am just picking up bits and pieces as news comes to me. I am not sure how it will all turn out but I'm sure it will be possible to get these products outside of Ireland where it is more viable for companies to get these products approved.

YFlyer

How did the EU come up with the rule that a product will have to be on the market for 30 years or more?