****Fwd: ANH-USA Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From Codex

[Guest guest]

This is wonderful news, thank you ANH!

Liz

 

 

Elizabeth Brandegee

Classical Homeopath

 

 

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ANH-USA Victory! Supplements Are Exempted From Codex Language in Food Safety

BillApril 13, 2010

 

 

The

FDA Food Modernization Act (S. 510), also referred to as the “Food

Safety†bill, has been modified to exempt dietary supplements from

language that otherwise creates a slippery slope toward U.S.

harmonization with Codex Alimentarius. ANH-USA worked to protect the

natural health community from this dangerous provision that threatened

access to high quality, therapeutic supplement doses by working with

key senators to modify the language, now for the second time.

The most worrisome provision of the bill initially required the Food and Drug

Agency (FDA) to recommend that U.S. foreign trading

partners harmonize with Codex. This odd language was no doubt very

intentional. How could we recommend harmonization to other countries if

we rejected it for the U.S.? So in effect we were committing ourselves

to a much more restrictive regulatory regime for supplements.

As the Senate moved forward with the Food Safety bill, Senator

Harkin (D-IA), committee chair, working closely with Senator Orrin

Hatch (R-UT), promised to see what could be done to make absolutely

clear this legislation was not intended to impact our access to dietary

supplements. At that time, Senator Harkin modified the Codex provision,

asking the FDA to consider “whether and how†to recommend U.S. foreign

trading partners harmonize. This was a very important change and a

tremendous show of support from both Senators, but we were still

concerned that the inclusion of Codex language in the bill could be

used to support future U.S. harmonization with Codex standards on

dietary supplements.

ANH-USA worked with our allies in the Senate over the past several

months to include additional language providing stronger protection for

supplements. New language has now been added specifically stating,

“Nothing in this section shall be construed to affect the regulation of

dietary supplements.â€

The Codex Alimentarius was initially developed to establish

international food safety standards and regulate ingredients of food

products. However, there is great concern that if the U.S. harmonizes

with Codex standards, which are expected to follow Europe’s increasing

ban on supplements, our access to supplements will be lost and even our

food standards may be compromised. Although ANH-USA considers the new

exemption a huge victory, it only applies to dietary supplements. The

U.S. is still at risk of harmonization with other Codex food standards.

ANH-USA is especially grateful to Senators Harkin and Hatch for

their leadership, continued dedication to the natural health community,

and most recently, their show of support protecting our supplements

from Codex harmonization. The Senate is expected to take up the Food

Safety bill any day now. As the legislative process moves forward we

will keep our members up to date on our efforts and where appropriate,

we’ll ask for your help to protect supplements from increased

government intrusion. The House version of the Food Safety bill,

already passed, is especially worrisome. We will continue to make every

effort, with your help, to ensure that the House version does not

become law.