“I take up the role as chair at a crucial point for our industry as the regulatory approach to taken towards botanicals hangs in the balance,” said the CEO of Belgian supplements firm Ortis and co-founder of 22-year-old Belgian supplements trade group NAREDI where he remains vice president.
“I will work towards achieving an approach that ensures consumer have access to high quality products that deliver genuine health benefits. Protecting consumers and creating a workable regulatory framework for the SMEs, such as my own, which make up the majority of our sector are not mutually exclusive goals.”
There are about 2000 botanical health claim applications under the EU nutrition and health claims regulation (NHCR) that have been on-hold since 2010 while the 28-nation bloc determines how best to treat the science backing them.
Horn has represented EHPM (European Federation of Associations of Health Products Manufacturers) quality standards at European Commission and European Parliament-hosted events in Brussels and his own firm has been visited by Commissioner for health and food safety, Vytenis Andriukaitis
Aside from his contribution to EHPM quality standards, Horn worked on Belgium’s highly regarded plant preparations decree of 1997 as well as the now-completed €6m EU-funded PlantLIBRA project that investigated botanicals from many angles.
“EHPM has led the way in developing industry best practice through our quality guide,” Horn said. “We will continue to play our part by working constructively with all other interested stakeholders, the European Commission, Parliament, Council and national regulators.”
Horn was not available for further comment at the time of publishing.
He replaces Alban Maggiar.