The regulation of Food Supplements in Europe - How much harmonisation is needed?
International Food Supplements Conference
An important and highly successful seminar entitled "The Regulation of Food Supplements in Europe - How much harmonisation is needed?" organised by the German Trade Association, Bund für Lebensmittelrecht und Lebensmittelkunde e. V. (BLL) in cooperation with European and global food supplement associations was recently held in Berlin, Germany.
220 delegates from around the world - leading regulatory authorities, scientists and industry representatives - took part in two days of controversial but constructive discussion on the most intensively discussed issues across Europe, in particular:
- Maximum permitted levels
- Health Claims
- Botanicals
It was a high level meeting with renowned speakers from various areas like Catherine Geslain-Lanéelle (Executive Director ofEFSA), Dagmar Roth-Behrendt (Vice-President of the European Parliament), Bernard Kühnle (Director General of the German Federal Ministry of Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection) and Basil Mathioudakis from the European Commission.
In summary, the conference once again highlighted the need for further harmonisation of the legal framework for food supplements in Europe. Although everybody is aware of the difficulties lying ahead it became evident that common solutions need to be found. One of the accomplishments of the conference was that it initiated direct dialogue between science, policy-making and industry sectors - dialogue that, as we were most happy to learn, the conference participants all agreed to continue.
Conference Report
Please refer to the Conference Report for details:
Conference Report (PDF)
