Rt. Hon. Gordon Brown MP
10 Downing Street
London
SW1A 2AA

24th September 2007

Dear Prime Minister,

Please understand that we wouldn’t be troubling you or seeking your support if we didn’t feel
so strongly about this, but we are at a loss to see a way forward without your help.

This is about our health; yours, your family’s and millions of consumers of all ages across Britain.
It is about the EU Food Supplements Directive and the hugely detrimental effects the regulations
will have on the health of our nation, and the massive cost burdens it could impose on the
National Health Service.

The NHS already sanctions many alternative treatments, now under
threat, that are widely used and which provide protection against a variety of ailments.
Most importantly, it is also about our freedom of choice – and our fundamental right to take
responsibility for our own health in whatever way we choose. So many people rely on supplements
for a variety of reasons (there is growing evidence that behavioural problems in some children
can be positively affected with the judicious use of the correct supplements).

We all rely on them
and are convinced that if the legislation progresses in its current form, we will lose our most
effective supplements and our nation’s health will be the poorer, and thousands of jobs will be
lost in the specialist health food trade.

Consumers for Health Choice, the independent group we support, have been working tirelessly
on this issue for a number of years and have made some progress in both Westminster and
Brussels. However, the Directive is at a crucial stage when the dose levels for vitamins and
minerals are to be determined.
We urgently need your intervention; will you please help protect our supplements?.

Although
Ministers and the Food Standards Agency are starting to gain momentum, they need immediately,
more actively and more effectively to engage with the European Commission and other European
Member State Governments to defend the right of all UK consumers to continue to have access
to safe and beneficial supplements of their choice. In addition, they need to make sure that
the legislation is interpreted in a proportionate manner that does not unnecessarily damage the
smaller specialist manufacturers and health food stores that are so important.

Please know that the timing is crucial. We must act now, before the Commission proposes its
maximum permitted dose levels for vitamins and minerals.
We do so hope we can count on you.
Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

www.consumersforhealthchoice.com

James Beattie
Cilla Black OBE
Helena Bonham-Carter
Sir Michael Caine
Lady Shakira Caine
Carole Caplin
Dame Judi Dench
David Gold
Edward Hall
Nicky Haslam
Eamon Holmes
Thelma Holt CBE
Gloria Hunniford
Felicity Kendal CBE
Bill Kenwright CBE
Lord Andrew Lloyd-Webber
Lady Madeleine Lloyd-Webber
Virginia McKenna OBE
John Madejski OBE DL
David Moyes
Sir Cliff Richard
Issy Van Randwick
Jenny Seagrove
Martin Shaw
Imogen Stubbs
John Wilkinson OBE