Local view for "http://purl.org/linkedpolitics/eu/plenary/2006-05-15-Speech-1-094"
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"en.20060515.16.1-094"2
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".
Mr President, today finds us discussing a brace of regulatory packages on foods, in the shape of Mrs Poli Bertone’s report on the nutritional and health claims made in respect of them, and my own report on the addition of vitamins and minerals and of certain other substances to them.
These two proposals for legislation have always been discussed and considered simultaneously and in tandem, since there would have been no point in taking the two at different times. This House having taken up some very controversial positions – as some of its Members still do – on whether, and if so how, claims of health and nutritional value should be regulated, there have always been time problems whenever the report on enrichment by the addition of minerals and vitamins was on the order of business. I would like to take this opportunity to thank all those concerned – the groups’ staff, the European Council and the Commission – for the very good cooperation in between sittings, which has made it possible for us to keep the lines of communication open and to achieve good compromises.
The intention is that the proposed regulation should harmonise the various national regulations on the addition of vitamins and minerals, and of certain other substances, to foodstuffs, and, today being the occasion of its second reading, I would like to mention that this regulation covers only the voluntary addition of vitamins and minerals, so that national regulations requiring their addition are unaffected.
One principle underpinning my report is that the Community should work towards a state of affairs in which it is with considerations of nutrition and health in mind that manufacturers use vitamin and mineral supplements, and so I am glad that, not only within this House, but also between the institutions, a compromise has been achieved, and that there is support for the bio-availability approach, according to which all added vitamins and minerals must be capable of being used by the body, for, if that were not the case, it would be misleading for the consumer and in extreme cases could result in adverse effects on human health.
In debating it, we have heard, over and over again, of examples of how, when too many vitamins or minerals are added, the human body ends up being unable to process this combination of substances, and so I think it is a good thing that we should opt for this bio-availability approach.
We have also made progress by agreeing to define other substances as well as vitamins and minerals, which are, of course, listed – and hence defined – in Annexes 1 and 2 to this Regulation.
It is because an excessive intake of vitamins and minerals can cause damage to health that safe maximum amounts must be laid down for the addition of such substances to foodstuffs. Provision is already made for such maximum amounts in the directive on food supplements, but these have not yet been published. Considerations of consumer safety, then, make it a matter of urgent necessity that they be laid down. The amendment of Article 6 is intended to ensure that the Commission will submit proposals for safe maximum amounts within two years.
Having myself been, for many years, a member of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety, I am also pleased that the Commission, in a supplementary statement, has announced a revision of the nutrition labelling directive, which is long overdue."@en1
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