Natural health products to be regulated

Legislation to regulate natural health products could be introduced before this year's election. File photo / Thinkstock

The Government and the Greens are working on legislation to regulate natural health products and plan to introduce a bill before the November 26 election.

Green Party health spokeswoman Sue Kedgley said today more and more people were turning to natural health products and it was important they could be confident products were safe and true to label.

Ms Kedgley said the Government had agreed to set up a new stand-alone natural health regulator.

Monitoring and enforcement costs, and capital costs, would be met by the Government, and the regulations would cover a wide range of products such as vitamins and Chinese medicines.

"The Green Party strongly supports natural healthcare and the use of natural health products," Ms Kedgley said.

"Natural health products contain many of the vitamins and minerals that are essential for our health."

Associate Health Minister Jonathan Coleman confirmed Cabinet had given the green light for work to start.

"Existing legislation relating to natural health products is obsolete," he said.

"We want to develop a regulatory system that is cost-effective and gives New Zealand consumers the assurance that the natural health products they buy are safe, true to claim and true to label."

Dr Coleman said there was overall support for some level of regulation in the natural health products sector, and the Government was conscious of the need to protect consumers while not imposing high-cost levels on the industry.

There are more than 6000 natural health products on sale in New Zealand and more than 450 natural health companies, with an estimated annual turnover of $760 million.

Establishing a regulator is one of the share policy initiatives agreed to by National and the Greens under a Memorandum of Understanding signed after the 2008 election.

In 2007 the previous Labour government worked with Australia to set up a joint regulator and produced the Therapeutic Products and Medicines Bill.

It passed its first reading by one vote but ministers did not have the numbers to get it any further and it was shelved.

New Zealand producers vehemently opposed the bill, saying it would reduce consumer choice, create high compliance costs and drive small players out of the market.

The Greens also had concerns about the bill, saying it would make some products too expensive.

- NZPA