Court holds member states temporarily responsible

Food supplements
Court holds member states temporarily responsible
By Sophie Petitjean | Thursday 29 April 2010

As long as the European Commission has not laid down the maximum amounts of vitamins and minerals that may be used in the manufacture of food supplements, the member states have competence for adopting regulations to this effect. Thus ruled the Court of Justice of the European Union, on 29 April, in response to a request for a preliminary ruling by the French Council of State.

Food supplement manufacturers, among them Solgar Vitamins France and the Syndicat de la diététique et des compléments alimentaire initiated a number of actions in 2006 challenging a decree of 9 May 2006, which sets maximum daily doses of the vitamins and minerals that may be used in the manufacture of food supplements. In principle, it is for the European Commission, assisted by the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health, to determine these amounts, according to Directive 2002/46. However, since the Commission has not yet adopted the necessary measure, the court leaves it to member states to lay down the maximum amounts. If the intake of a mineral from other food sources poses a risk of exceeding the upper safe limit established for that mineral, the member state may also set the maximum amount at zero without having to resort to the safety procedure.

In the instant case, France is indeed authorised to set the maximum amount of fluoride at 0 mg, since it considers that this chemical element belongs to a category of minerals that present a risk to certain segments of the population. The member states are nevertheless obliged to use elements of the directive as guidance, particularly the requirements of an evaluation of risks founded on generally acceptable scientific data, when setting maximum amounts.