Save Our Supplements: Our Health, Our Choice

Sponsored Article by Bernadette Cass, Fruit N Nut Health Store, Portlaoise 

What if, one day soon, you walked into your local health store looking for the supplement you have trusted for years, only to discover that the strength you have always bought is no longer available?

That is the very real concern facing consumers across Ireland.

I am joining health store owners around the country in raising serious concerns about proposed European Union rules that could introduce maximum permitted levels for vitamins and minerals in food supplements.

This is not about opposing regulation. Let me be absolutely clear about that.

We support sensible, evidence-based regulation that protects consumers.

What concerns us is the possibility that regulations designed to protect people could instead restrict their access to supplements they currently choose to take and trust.

Take magnesium as an example. Current guidance allows supplements providing 250mg per day, while a proposed EU maximum level could reduce that to 145mg. That represents a reduction of more than 40% in the amount available from a supplement.

For consumers, this is not simply a number on a piece of paper.

It is about choice.

It is about people being able to make informed decisions about their own health.

And it is about whether the supplement they have relied upon for years will still be available in the form they need.

At Fruit N Nut Health Store in Portlaoise, I speak to people every day who take responsibility for their health. They ask questions. They read labels. They seek advice. They make choices with their own hard-earned money.

These are not people asking for a free pass or a lack of regulation.

They are asking for choice.

The proposed EU approach is intended to harmonise maximum permitted levels of vitamins and minerals across member states, with the European Commission citing consumer safety as a key reason for introducing limits.

But we have to ask a very important question: are the proposed limits proportionate, evidence-based and genuinely in the best interests of Irish consumers?

Ireland already has a regulatory framework overseen by the Food Safety Authority of Ireland. The health food sector is not asking for a free-for-all. We are asking that any new restrictions are based on robust scientific evidence and properly consider the real-world consequences for consumers.

There is another issue that concerns me greatly.

If people cannot obtain the products and strengths they currently use through reputable, regulated Irish retailers, where will they turn?

We should be extremely careful about creating a situation where consumers look online or elsewhere for products from sources that may have far less oversight.

That cannot be what anyone wants.

There could also be significant consequences for Irish health stores and, ultimately, consumers. If people need to purchase more products to achieve the intake they are accustomed to, the cost could increase at a time when household finances are already under enormous pressure.

And there is a much bigger principle here.

We should be encouraging people to take responsibility for their health, not making it harder for them to do so.

People exercise. They improve their diets. They stop smoking. They seek support. They make lifestyle changes. For many people, appropriately used supplements form one small part of that wider approach to wellbeing.

Our health system is already under huge pressure. Prevention and personal responsibility should surely be part of the conversation.

That is why I am asking people in Portlaoise and across Laois to pay attention to what is happening.

The Save Our Supplements campaign has already gathered more than 26,000 signatures, demonstrating that this issue matters to people.

You can sign the petition at saveoursupplements.ie. You can also find information and campaign materials there, including templates that allow you to contact your local TDs and public representatives.

I am particularly interested in one question:

How will our Minister for Health represent the concerns of Irish consumers when these proposals are discussed at European level?

Our public representatives need to know that people are paying attention.

The campaign group is seeking an opportunity to make its case at an Oireachtas committee hearing in September. That would be an important opportunity to properly examine the proposals, hear the evidence and allow the Irish consumer to have a voice.

This should not become a debate where people are told simply to accept whatever Brussels decides.

We should be asking questions.

We should be looking at the evidence.

We should be listening to consumers, retailers, scientists, health professionals and regulators.

And we should be making sure that any restrictions introduced are genuinely necessary, proportionate and in the public interest.

I believe people should have the freedom to make informed choices about their own health.

I believe regulation should protect consumers without unnecessarily removing choice.

And I believe that if we sit quietly now, we may not get the opportunity to change things later.

If you believe our health matters, make your voice heard.

Sign the petition. Share it. Contact your TD. Contact the Minister for Health.

You can find out more and sign the petition at saveoursupplements.ie, or call into Fruit N Nut Health Store in Portlaoise.

This is not simply about supplements.

It is about our health, our choices and our right to have a voice in the decisions that affect both.

Don't wait until the choice has been taken away to start asking questions.