For years the public has been left to its own devices on the consumption of food supplements but new regulations, which come into force at the end of this month, will offer guidelines for the very first time.

The Food Safety Act has just been approved by the Health Ministry, in line with EU directives. Malta never had any regulations on food supplements - including vitamins, minerals, amino acids and herbals - and these were mostly treated as medicinal.

Martin Seychell, head of the Malta Standards Authority's foodstuffs, chemicals and cosmetics directorate, said the regulations were intended to safeguard consumers' interests as sales of supplements were higher each year.

Food supplements can be placed on the market at the seller's responsibility - authorities will only intervene if there is evidence that the product is unsafe.

"The European directive has, for the first time, defined a food supplement, yet it only regulated vitamins and minerals and not all food supplements," Mr Seychell explained.

The list of the vitamins and minerals which can be used in the manufacture of food supplements now appears in the first schedule of the Food Safety Act.

The EU has left its member states and acceding countries free to decide on a national level whether to ban, accept or limit those vitamins or minerals that are not on the list. Among the unlisted ones are boron, used to maintain healthy teeth and bones, and vanadium, for reducing cholesterol and fighting diabetes.

The UK is opting to introduce regulations to ban from high street shops these and a wide range of other natural food and vitamin supplements, used by millions, according to a recent report in The Sunday Times of London.

This move outraged British consumers who are questioning why the government is opting to ban the sale of certain vitamins and minerals, which have never seriously harmed anyone, yet continues to allow the sale of tobacco.

When asked if Malta intended adopting such an approach, Mr Seychell said the government was not taking a restrictive attitude.

"We want to safeguard the health of Maltese consumers yet, at the same time, we do not want to be too restrictive. The state has no business deciding what the public should consume," he said.

Mr Seychell said there would not be an automatic ban. Instead, Malta has decided to permit the sale of supplements not on the list until 2009, so long as they satisfied two conditions - December 31, 2009 has been established because it is expected that by that date the EU would have come up with an in-depth analysis on the use of supplements not on the list.

The first condition stipulates that the substance would have to have been used or marketed in the European community on July 12, 2002.

The second is that the European Food Safety Authority would not have given an unfavourable opinion on the use of the substance, otherwise the government would proceed to ban it.

Mr Seychell said that as from the end of this month whoever intended to import new food supplements would have to notify the MSA and send a copy of the product's label to ensure it made no medical claims.

However, importers who already have supplements on the market have until the end of next year to notify the authority on what is on the market shelves.

"These regulations are aimed to give us a picture of what exactly is on sale as well as to protect consumers from any quack medicines - the public need not worry," he said.

Without proper guidelines or advice, consumers were popping supplements without taking into account the vitamins derived from food, risking potential side-effects in the process. The EU could not establish a specific dosage of vitamins and minerals which could be consumed safely across the board, since diets in Europe varied so much.

"Vitamin D supplement is hardly needed in Malta because it is derived from the sun but this is not the case, for example, in the north of Sweden, so the EU left it to member states to decide," Mr Seychell said.

The authority has now established a maximum upper level and guidance levels of doses based on toxicological data and the average diet of the Maltese.

"European manufacturers have asked us what our stand is so that they can reformulate their product on the decisions adopted by member states and acceding countries," he said.

The authority's next job is to study the best possible way of regulating fortified foods such as fruit juices and cereals, among others, which have added vitamins and minerals.

"We hope to issue some criteria to establish which supplements should be added to food to eliminate any chance of adverse symptoms," Mr Seychell said.

In the coming months the authority will also be setting up a scientific committee of independent experts who will advise the government on issues relating to food safety.

The following are maximum permitted levels and guidance levels for vitamins and minerals which can be consumed per day by an adult weighing 60 kilogrammes:

Biotin: 0.9 mg
Folic Acid: 1 mg
Nicotinic acid: 17 mg
Nicotinamide: 500 mg
Pantothenic acid: 200 mg
Riboflavin (Vitamin B2): 100 mg
Thiamin (Vitamin B1): 100 mg
Vitamin B6: 10 mg
Vitamin B12: 1 mg
Vitamin C: 1,000 mg
Vitamin A (Retinol): 1,500 µg.
B-carotene: 7 mg
Vitamin D: 0.025 mg
Vitamin E: 800 IU
Vitamin K: 1 mg

Chromium: 9 mg
Copper: 2 mg
Iodine: 0.2mg
Manganese: 4 mg or 0.5 mg for the older generation
Molybdenum: 25 µg
Selenium: 0.2 mg
Zinc: 25 mg
Calcium: 1,500 mg
Fluoride: 0.01 mg
Iron: 17 mg
Magnesium: 400 mg
Phosphorus: 250 mg
Potassium: 3,700 mg
Sodium chloride: 0