British Government Challenges Traditional Medicines Directive

A petition compiled by the U.K.-based Consumers for Health Choice (CHC), a lobby group established in 1996, which is at the forefront of the 'Save our Supplements' campaign, is asking that the British government take action on the recently passed European Union directives to regulate herbal medicines and food supplements, according to a Nov. 25 article at NutraIngredients.com.

The herbal directive “seeks to shoehorn herbal remedies into the formal regulatory environment of pharmaceutical drugs and threatens their continued availability,” according to a CHC campaign statement.

Britain stands to lose more than other EU members because it currently offers the most liberal regulatory environment, says NutraIngredients.com. It cites a report in the UK's Financial Times, which values the British herbal market at $704.9 million per year, the biggest in Europe. CHC asserts that if the directive passes, hundreds of herbal products currently available in Britain will have to be removed from shelves.