Herbs prohibited or banned herbs?
April 30 this year, the Directive 2004/24/EC (THMPD) of the European Union has to be implemented in various countries of the European Union.
What does this mean in normal Dutch? At the end of the month, Member States should monitor compliance with a directive that is drafted and adopted in 2004 . It is a Directive about herbs.
Idea was then, that it was undesirable that there could be randomly said that certain herbs have medicinal properties without research . In itself, this whole idea is not absurd. On the other hand, there is a huge knowledge of herbs based on tradition and present publications including China from the time that we were still walking around in bear skins and had problems with building a fire in Europe.
Since the publication of the guideline they tried to get a number of herbal remedies registered. Across Europe a small 200 succeeded, but a 1000 applications are still waiting. This is for Europe as a whole. For the Netherlands only 4 are successfully adopted.
The Directive follows that it is forbidden to mention health claims on packaging of food, unless the product has been registered as a medicine. I heard of a company that one garlic product had to be removed from the market because on the package was said that since hundreds of years garlic has been known for its blood purifying properties. This is an example of such a health claim that has caused to remove a product from the market here.
Many companies are seeking appropriate formulations so that they do not break rules in that regard.
The European Food Safety Authority EFSA has to ensure that every one exercises the rules.
This caused some panic because it is not at all clear how compliance with the legislation is going to be completed. Indeed, there is only a limited number of products registered. Too little to existing needs. If products are required that aren't registered (yet), this can cause problems.
Questions on this matter asked to the European Commission were dismissed by saying that possible problems will be viewed when the law takes effect. The EFSA indeed recognizes that there are problems and it would fit in corporate governance as the entry into this legislation would be delayed until a satisfactory solution for these big problems would be found.
In formulating the legislation, the definition of 'medicine' is so well established that the use of plants and herbs after April 30, 2011 can be labeled as the use of (not registered) medicines with all kind of consequences.
The fact is that the government on May 1 2011 has the possibilitity to prohibit the use of herbs in food supplements .
They can use al list prepared by the EFSA, known as the Toolset. The list contains about 1200 plants which may have a toxic side. But if one knows that on this list are plants such as potato and basil........ .
How does it develop? Given the controls that already occurred during the pigeons scholarships in recent months by the various regulatory authorities this seems a legitimate question.
Do we go to a development that in addition to the prohibition on health claims on packaging, as they recently have been made, a ban on the use of herbs in food will be included? Will it be forbidden to composite herbal products to prepare and deliver them?
In short will the herbs be placed in the dock, where the use of it will be labeled as criminal unless it is as a medicinal herbal registered product?
If the problems concerning this matter not be fully resolved, it could be to that citizens (and / or their animals) in Europe dont have the freedom of choice to choose the medicine (herbs instead of drugs) that are required for themselves.
That one could deprive me this choice weighs more heavily with me than the fact that I mandatory have to take a part of my Bony products from the market.If I would be sick I want to be able to opt for an alternative treatment .
As if thousands of years traditional Chinese herbal medicine, for one example, with a stroke could be dismissed as an infantile medicine.
Maybe signing the petition at http://www.savenaturalhealth.eu is not so bad after all.
I thank the NVF
Peter Boskamp
