The Alliance for Natural Health won a victory this week when a European judge declared that  the European Directive on Vitamins and Minerals was invalid. These new rules are due to come into effect on 1 August 2005. Some 5000 supplements would be wiped of the shelves if this directive were pushed through.

The Advocate General at the European Court of Justice (ECJ) gave an advisory opinion that the current directive infringes basic EU principles. The ECJ will give its full ruling on the case in July, but the court normally follows the Advocate General's opinion.

Although the intention of the Directive is to protect consumers from unsafe supplements, it appeared to actually ban supplements that are probably much more effective - mainly due to their greater absorbability within the human body. Perhaps the best known of these are the Mineral Ascorbate forms of Vitamin C, organic forms of Iron, 'Bio' forms of Calcium, yeast forms of Selenium and the blood sugar supplement Chromium, generally believed by health professionals to be a safe and effective supplement for helping to control insulin resistance. More than 20 million  people in the UK spend £335 million a year on supplements in order to help maintain good health.

The problem with the Directive is that the so called 'Positive list' of approved substances lacks clear rules for the European comission to follow when deciding when to include an ingredient on the list.

However, the Advocate General upheld the notion of EU legislation of health supplements saying the proposals needed to be reworked rather than scrapped altogether. But at least the Directive is being pushed towards being a fairer piece of legislation.