I understand there are a lot of people against it, and I'm not quite sure why. I've only heard plans to protest it, but no information on what it's about. It appears to be an EU based harmonization of food standards, establishing minimum standards for quality and requiring testing of supplements.
Codex Alimentarius homepage

Canadian Gov't page on it

The only negative link I could find was from a "natural health" magazine that is dead set against regulation of vitamins and other supplements as drugs. I have a hard time having problems with this, as I see people draining their wallets buying ridiculous supplements instead of getting their vitamins from fresh fruits and vegetables which would also provide much needed fibre.

Finally here's a short article on it from Medical News.

quote:

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Originally posted by kurichina:
I have a hard time having problems with this, as I see people draining their wallets buying ridiculous supplements instead of getting their vitamins from fresh fruits and vegetables which would also provide much needed fibre.

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[ 25 June 2005: Message edited by: Agent 204 ]

It's not as elegant as the Periodic Table of Elements but it's a useful world wide undertaking. Public health matters might also fall under a similar category.

[ 25 June 2005: Message edited by: N.Beltov ]

I've emailed a friend whose mom who has a nutraceutical company; I hope she'll weigh in on this issue which is more about protecting big Pharma than it is about protecting consumers.

[ 25 June 2005: Message edited by: Anchoress ]

Those are, both of them, serious problems. Western governments, especially but not only the U.S., are now as heavily indebted to Big Pharma as they are to the arms industries, and the implications are serious, up to and including the way that any illness of yours may be diagnosed in the first place.

But I agree with kurichina that most people most of the time get the health benefits they need from real food and a balanced diet, not from supplements, and that our standards for supplements have been lax, their availability outside a system of medical or pharmacological scrutiny sometimes dangerous.

quote:

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The affected products are mostly high-dosage vitamin supplements sold through health food stores rather than everyday tablets available at High Street pharmacies. Antioxidants such as selenium and minerals such as boron which are sold in tablet form will be affected.

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So it seems at least that your normal vitamin C or multivitamin tablet won't be effected, although stores like GNC might see their inventory cut back.