Ralph Fucetola JD

www.VitaminLawyer.com  - ralth.fuctola@usa.net

58 Plotts Road - Newton, NJ 07860

973.300.1519 - Fax: 300.5486

                                                                                                            September 30, 2006

To Whom It May Concern:

As a Natural Solutions Foundation supporter you have raised several important questions; as the Natural Solutions Foundation general counsel, I will answer them in this letter.  I think we can all agree that our focus must be on actions that engage Codex Alimentarius, the World Food Code, in supporting good nutrition and natural health solutions.  In this area, Natural Solutions Foundation has proven itself to be in the forefront of global civil society.

First, my article reporting the events at the Codex CCFL meeting in Canada earlier this year described what I observed at that meeting as accurately as I was able.  It reported that the committee took significant steps toward a more nutritionally sound international food trade. Specifically the committee included the South African principles for implementation of the WHO Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Activity and Health[1] in the committee's official meeting report.[2] I also reported the ongoing jockeying between major forces in Codex, especially, the US and EU.

Second, the report of the meeting posted by the leaders of the Natural Solutions Foundation, who were also present, made the same points as my article.  The Final Committee Report states .

24) The Delegation of South Africa, supported by the Observer from NHF, put forward several proposals for further consideration:  recognizing that nutrients are not toxins and that their assessment should reflect acknowledged benefits and desired impact from their use in order to achieve positive outcomes and that they should generally be recognized as safe; banning the addition of partially and fully hydrogenated trans fatty acids in foods, allowing the enrichment of foods with dietary supplements in order to optimize nutrient density to compensate for a decline in micronutrients in various foods, ensuring that global legislation prevent the use of industrial toxins and additives that are not supported by biochemistry and clinical experience; supporting nutrition and health claims and advertising for those foods that contribute to a healthy life style, while banning such claims for those foods that do not contribute to a healthy life style, especially as regards advertising directed to children, all in the context of optimal health.

This is an important step in insuring the inclusion of nutrition standards in international food trade rules.  The South African representative at the meeting concurred with us in our interpretation of these events.

Third, we at the Natural Solutions Foundation believe that the inclusion of the essence of the "South African principles" in the CCFL Committee Final Report advances our two-pronged strategy for the implementation of an international food trade standard that tracks the Health Freedom principles of the US Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA), that Supplements are Foods, not Toxins.[3],[4] The strategy consists of persuading countries to do two things: 

1. Establish the international guidelines for food supplement trade developed by Natural Solutions Foundation in conjunction with the Citizens for Health Codex Working Group as their domestic nutritional guidelines, rather than the scientifically flawed Codex Guidelines for Vitamin and Mineral Food Supplements ratified July 4, 2005, Rome, Italy.

2. Adopt domestic national food supplement laws that apply the principles of the US Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act of 1994 (DSHEA).

Natural Solutions Foundation and the Citizens for Health Codex Working Group have developed a Model International Food Supplements law to assist countries interested in adopting DSHEA-type legislation. You can find our proposed guidelines and Model law on our web site at: Codex e-Book, http://www.healthfreedomusa.org/resources/books.shtml.

Natural Solutions Foundation representatives have had great success in pursuing this agenda in meetings with senior national officials, including cabinet members and heads of state, in several African and Asian countries and at Codex meetings.  The actions of the Codex CCFL in Canada have been helpful in these efforts.  But the favorable discussions held so far are only the first steps in creating sound nutritional standards for international food trade.  The next step is to persuade countries to act on the information that they are treating positively in these early conversations.

For your records, to allow comparison with what the CCFL included in its Report, here are the South African Principles as proposed to the CCFL:

South Africa presented eleven points for the implementation of the Global Strategy on Diet, Physical Exercise and Health:

1. Formally recognize and accept that nutrients are not toxins. They should be subjected to sound assessment procedures which take into account empirical, clinical, statistical and peer review processes and which take acknowledged benefits and desirable impact from the use of them in order to achieve positive outcomes, into consideration;

2. Formally accept nutrients as generally safe and encourage the unrestricted sale of that category of food called "dietary supplements" at all levels, including optimum potency levels, throughout the world;

3. Ban all added trans fats derived from industrial hydrogenation in the production of food;

4. Ensure that countries are encouraged to add, and do not place restrictions on the addition of nutrients which are supported by biochemistry, clinical nutrition, clinical experience, empirical observation and customary usage to food;

5. Ensure that countries enact strong legislative restrictions on the addition of industrial toxins to food, which are not supported by biochemistry, clinical nutrition, clinical experience and customary usage;

6. Allow and encourage enrichment of foods through the addition of that class of food called dietary supplements in order to optimize nutrient density of foods. Require that countries compensate for the decline in micronutrients in agricultural produce (e.g., fruits and vegetables) as a result of the depletion of trace nutrients in soil by commercial agriculture practices through the incorporation of that class of food called dietary supplements in order to optimize nutrient density of these foods;

7. Encourage and support the development of national and international policies which, enhance local, national, regional and global optimal nutrition through life-style modification (including diet), fortification and supplementation with that category of food called dietary supplements at all levels, including optimum potency levels;

8. Identify foods that do not contribute to, conflict with or are not essential for a healthy lifestyle ("junk food"). Similarly, identify foods that can support a healthy life-style. Support nutrition and health claims in labeling and advertising for those foods that do contribute to a healthy life-style and ban nutrition and health claims on the labeling and advertising of those foods which do not contribute to a healthy life style in order to encourage health-supporting foods and discourage ones that do not support health;

9. Ensure that countries encourage truthful, full and accurate labeling and advertising on all foods, which contribute to health and ban advertising and health claims on those that do not;

10. Ensure that countries develop a ban on junk food advertising to children (birth to 18 years);

11. Require that the Chairpersons of CCFL and CCNFSDU report to the Codex Alimentarius Commission every other year on the status of the implementation of the WHO/FAO GLOBAL STRATEGY ON DIET, PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND HEALTH and items 1-10 listed above.[5]

Natural Solutions Foundation, to assert its support for these principles, has inaugurated its International Decade of Nutrition, aimed at supporting natural solutions for pressing health concerns globally. We want to see DSHEA become the world standard for a healthier humanity.

I thank you for your inquiry about the role of the Natural Solutions Foundation and myself in this most important of campaigns—the inclusion of sound nutrition principles in international food trade—and for your continuing support of the Natural Solutions Foundation.  I encourage you and all other individuals who support or are interested in the activities of the Natural Solutions Foundation to contact us directly on any matters of interest or concern about the Natural Solutions Foundation on which we can be of service. I am proud to be a Natural Solutions Foundation supporter. On behalf of the leadership and the other good people at Natural Solutions Foundation, I invite your continued support.