The Daily Telegraph has today published an article highlighting the concerns of three MPs over plans for setting maximum permitted levels (MPLs) for vitamins and minerals in food supplements.
The concerns have been aired in a letter sent to the newspaper by Kate Hoey MP, Dr John Pugh MP and Marcus Jones MP, in which the three Parliamentarians argue that such a move would be contentious in Britain “where millions of people have consumed safe higher-potency vitamin and mineral supplements for many decades, with no evidence of any significant harm”.
The MPs warn that in addition to limiting consumer choice, the new legislation would “lead to the loss of thousands of jobs”.
The letter follows an approach to the MPs by Consumers for Health Choice. Given that this has been published in the best-selling broadsheet newspaper in Britain on the day before the Commissioner’s visit, this will highlight to the new Commissioner, and his officials, that the subject of the setting of maximum permitted levels is still a matter of controversy in Britain and that there remains strong, vocal and cross-party opposition to this.
Chris Whitehouse. CHC’s director of strategy, warned: “Consumer choice must not be sacrificed on the altar of harmonisation.”
