08/03/2010

Under the auspices of the Spanish Presidency of the European Union, the Workshop on Food Supplements, organised by AESAN (the Spanish Agency for Food Safety and Nutrition), took place on the 8 March 2010 at the Ministry for Health and Social Policy. Roberto Sabrido, the AESAN President, opened the event, which was attended by 90 national and international experts in the field.

Maria Dolores Gómez, Head of Nutritional Risk Management (AESAN) chaired the first session titled “Assessing the risks of plants and other nutritional and physiological substances other than vitamins and minerals used in the manufacture of food supplements”, and speakers included Bernard Bottex and Majlinda Lahaniatis, both from the European Food Safety Authority (EFSA), and Marie Favrot, of the French Food Safety Agency (AFSSA).

Ana María Troncoso, Executive Director of AESAN, chaired the second session titled “Other substances used in food supplements. Commission approach. Mutual recognition”, during which two speakers from the European Commission, Basil Mathioudakis from DG SANCO (Directorate General for Health and Consumer Affairs) and Juan Antonio Salazar of DG Enterprise (Directorate General of Enterprise and Industry) presented their ideas and work within the Commission.

In the afternoon, Rosa Sanchidrián, Deputy Director General for Food Risk Management, chaired the third and final session, “National approaches to Directive 2002/46/EC enforcement. Arising problems.” Speakers included Pascale De Gryse, Federal Department of Public Health and Safety of the Food Chain and Environment (Belgium); Pia Noble, of the Federal Ministry for Food, Agriculture and Consumer Protection (Germany); Guillaume Cousyn of the General Directorate for competition policy, consumer affairs and fraud control, Economy, Industry and Employment Ministry (France), and Ellen Nicoline Blok of the Ministry of Health, Welfare and Sport (Netherlands).

This international meeting took place with the aim of taking a first step towards the harmonisation of criteria in the application of Directive 2002/46/EC, relating to the approximation of Member States’ legislation with regard to food supplements, with the following objectives:

• To share national approaches for the application of Directive 2002/46/EC.
• To reflect on how to apply current EU legal instruments in the management of food supplements.
• To define the impact of Regulation (EC) Nº 764/2008, which lays down procedures relating to the application of certain national technical regulations to products legally marketed in other Member States, on the marketing of food supplements composed of substances other than vitamins and minerals which are not harmonised at European level.
• To promote transparency and to share the experiences of Member States in this field in order to ensure a high level of protection for consumers whilst at the same time ensuring the efficient functioning of the internal market.

At the end of the workshop, Ana María Troncoso, Executive Director of the Agency, presented the conclusions, which will soon be published on this website.

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