Date:4 September 2025
Treść Sekcje
- ● ANH’s US petition: a challenge to unlawful censorship
- ● Why this matters for Europe and the UK
- ● From censorship to empowerment
- ● Where next?
- ● A transatlantic call to action
By Rob Verkerk, executive & scientific director, Alliance for Natural Health (International and USA)
Back in 2008, ANH International found itself on the front lines of the battle over Europe’s restrictive EU Nutrition and Health Claims Regulation (NHCR). We argued then—as we do now—that locking scientific communication about the benefits of foods and nutrients behind a gate of regulatory censorship is a profound disservice to both citizens and public health.
From our 2007 analysis of the EU and US regimes, to our lobbying efforts which nearly caused the European Parliament to block the full implementation of the NHCR in 2011, through the 2012 “European Winter of Health Claims Discontent”, and continuing with our 2017 campaign to give the public a final say on reform, we have consistently shown how the EU’s health claims system became a barrier to informed consumer choice rather than a bridge to better health.
Today, a new development across the Atlantic could prove a game-changer not just for the USA, but also for the countries of the EU and the UK.
ANH’s US petition: a challenge to unlawful censorship
Our sister organisation, ANH-USA, that I also head up, has this week filed a landmark legal petition to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), challenging the agency’s illegal censorship of nearly 120 science-backed nutrient–disease risk reduction claims from authoritative bodies such as the National Institutes of Health (NIH) and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). These claims are the direct parallel to Article 14(1)(a) ‘disease risk reduction claims’ in the EU, of which only a paltry 14 have been authorised, and 30 have been rejected (“non-authorised”), following comprehensive applications that yielded negative opinions from the draconian European Food Safety Authority (EFSA). You can find out more about authorised, non-authorised or revoked health claims via the EU Register.
Under US law, authoritative nutrient-disease claims should have been made available to the public since 1997, under a specific clause of the FDA Modernization Act (Section 303). Instead, the FDA imposed unlawful restrictions that have kept them off labels and out of reach for consumers.
If successful, the petition could unlock 118 nutrient–disease claims immediately (compare that with the EU’s current 14), changing how Americans learn about the health benefits of nutrients ranging from magnesium and vitamin K2 to potassium and grape seed polyphenols.
Regulatory agencies have for decades set up roadblocks that make it extremely difficult, if not impossible, for non-drugs, in particular, nutrients found in foods (including supplements), from being linked to the prevention or treatment of disease states. This barrier that has been erected between foods and drugs, as well as between cosmetics and drugs, is entirely arbitary; it is in no way representative of the science. It is purely a tool that is intended to protect drug monopolies and oligopolies.
Why this matters for Europe and the UK
While the US and EU regulatory systems are different, they share several common features, the most prominent being that they both operate as if the public cannot be trusted with truthful, even science-backed information about food and health.
- In the EU, only 297 claims out of more than 40,000 originally proposed have been authorised under the NHCR—a minuscule fraction that excludes many of the most meaningful, health-defining claims.
- In the UK, post-Brexit, the regime is still tied to the EU model, but for the first time in nearly two decades there is political and regulatory space for divergence.
A successful challenge in the USA would demonstrate to EU and UK policymakers that it is both legally and scientifically possible to open the door to more claims without undermining consumer protection. On the contrary, empowering citizens with accurate, authoritative health information is a public health imperative, especially in an age of escalating chronic disease.
From censorship to empowerment
The parallels are clear. Just as US citizens have been denied access to claims endorsed by their own government’s scientific agencies, EU and UK citizens have been denied access to thousands of peer-reviewed studies that never made it past EFSA’s excessively pharmaceutical-style risk assessment framework.
The FDA petition may provide a jurisprudential spark. If the FDA’s Chief Counsel, Sean Keveney, FDA Commissioner Dr Marty Makary and Robert F. Kennedy Jr., as secretary for health, wo whom our petition is addressed, decide to affirm that citizens have a constitutional right to access truthful, non-misleading information about nutrients and disease risk reduction, it will be far harder for EU or UK regulators to justify their ongoing suppression of comparable information.
Where next?
ANH International has long argued that health claims law in Europe and the UK must be rebuilt around:
- Transparency and proportionality: ensuring consumers see the weight of evidence, not just EFSA’s “yes/no” verdicts.
- Graduated claims: allowing different levels of certainty to be expressed, rather than a binary all-or-nothing model.
- Freedom of speech and informed choice: recognising that access to truthful health information is a fundamental right, not a privilege granted at regulators’ discretion.
As the UK begins to chart its own regulatory path post-Brexit, and as the EU considers revisions to its Food Information Regulation framework, the outcome of ANH-USA’s petition could not be more relevant.
A transatlantic call to action
What happens in Silver Spring (where the FDA is based) and Washington, DC this year could have ripple effects in Brussels and London tomorrow. If the US can restore health freedom by re-opening access to truthful claims, the EU and UK will find it increasingly difficult to justify the ongoing censorship of science-backed information.
The time is ripe for a transatlantic movement to reclaim citizens’ right to know. ANH International will continue to push for reform in the EU and the UK, working closely with our US team as this groundbreaking petition unfolds.
Stay tuned: history may be in the making.
>>> Read more about ANH-USA’s FDA petition here.
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