Consumers for Health Choice

Consumers for Health Choice, set up in 1996 claims to be "an independent (non-profit making) consumer organisation with 11,000 members in the UK, and over 267,000 supporters on its database." ^[1]. The members of CHC are "consumer organisations and practitioner organisations, companies and individuals"^[2]

The Whitehouse Consultancy provides 'political advice' for the CHC. CHC has offices in London and Brussels.

CHC, according to Sue Croft has been set up "to monitor possible adverse legislation coming from Brussels that might affect the rights of consumers to take responsibility for their own health without the use of pharmaceutical drugs".^[3]

In 2005 the CHC played a prominent role in lobbying against the EU Food Supplements Directive on banning certain food supplements. Previosly most herbal remedies were available in Britain under Section 12 of the 1968 Medicines Act as "medicines exempt from licensing". The directive required that manufacturers provide evidence that their products are safe before they are given a licence. ^[4]. One of the arguments used to oppose the Directive is that consumers would be denied the freedom of choice and that their health can be extremely damaged and therefore CHC has been established to defend consumers' right to buy food supplements. The food supplement retailers and manufacturers who run the CHC are pretending to be the voice of the consumer. The CHC website provides a sample of the letter to be send to MPs or MEPs in support of their campaign.^[5]

The campaign to lobby against the Directive was supported by the Conservative Party. It's aim was to "put pressure on the Government to step in and get the right deal in Brussels". The party's website mentions CHC as a partner in "saving our supplements". ^[6]