Actress and Tories launch bid to save health remedies
Actress Jenny Seagrove is spearheading a Tory campaign to keep food supplements and vitamins on UK shelves.
The Conservative Party claims that hundreds of remedies will be banned as a result of a new EU directive.
The Tories say health remedies that have been used safely for years will disappear because of an EU Directive, due to come into force on August 1st 2005, which aims to harmonise the rules on vitamins and food supplements across the European Union.
Ms Seagrove is launching a petition to urge ministers to stop the EU ban. Other celebrities backing the campaign include Sir Cliff Richard and Sir Paul McCartney.
The nationwide e-petition was launched today by Ms Seagrove at a health food shop in West London and can now be found on the Conservative Party website, the BBC reports. It urges the government “to take action to secure a better deal for all British consumers of vitamin and mineral products”.
Shadow health secretary Tim Yeo said he was delighted Ms Seagrove and the group Consumers for Health Choice were supporting the campaign.
“Labour let down millions of vitamins and food supplements’ users when they passed the European Food Supplements Directive last year,” he said. “This may be our last chance to change this unnecessary and damaging EU legislation.”
However, the Consumers’ Association believes that the legislation is unlikely to have an impact on the consumer and is calling for better information about the debate. The association has campaigned for new laws on vitamins and supplements since the early 1990s.
Meanwhile, a survey conducted by market research group Mintel found that Brits are becoming more concerned with alternative remedies and supplements. In the past decade, UK consumers have been spending less on cold and indigestion medicines, which only alleviate symptoms, but have increased spending on vitamins and supplements.
