Verrall Ayesha; Dean JacquiFOOD (CONTINUATION OF DIETARY SUPPLEMENTS REGULATIONS) AMENDMENT BILLSecond ReadingHon Dr AYESHA VERRALL (Minister for Food Safety): I present a legislative statement on the Food (Continuation of Dietary Supplements Regulations) Amendment Bill.ASSISTANT SPEAKER (Hon Jacqui Dean): That legislative statement is published under the authority of the House and can be found on the Parliament website.Hon Dr AYESHA VERRALL: I move That the Food (Continuation of Dietary Supplements Regulations) Amendment Bill be now read a second time. When we think about dietary supplements which are a subset of natural health products I think a confusing thing for many people is the idea that because they're natural supplements they're somehow benign but that is not at all the case. Dietary supplements include products like iron tablets which as well as being a crucial health product for many people suffering from amenia is also a leading cause of poisoning of young children when they inadvertently swallow the tablets. Glucosamine is an important treatment for osteoarthritis and borne out of many clinical studies; and St John's Wort as well is a product that has many interactions with important medicines that people take. So these products can be helpful to people and they are certainly not at all benign from a safety perspective. So that's why it's important that we pass this bill. This bill will extend the Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985. It will maintain our current safety measures that we have and New Zealand's reputation as a supplier of quality dietary supplements. It will maintain consumers' access to these products and it will give industry the certainty they need to keep operating while a new regulatory regime is developed.This bill was reported back by the Primary Production Committee in December last year with the recommendation that it be passed without amendment. I thank the members of the committee for their consideration of this bill. The committee received 12 written submissions and had one oral submission from key parties that represented a range of perspectives. Submitters generally supported the bill including the five-year extension. I'm very grateful for the individuals and organisations that took the time to make submissions.Dietary supplements are health and wellness products taken orally in dose forms to supplement the diet. Examples are vitamins like vitamin C or mineral supplements Echinacea fish oils and probiotic tablets. The Dietary Supplements Regulations 1985 is old but at the moment there is nothing suitable to replace these regulations with and they expire at the end of the month. Because they have some safety and suitability measures these regulations need to be continued until a new regime is developed. In particular the existing regulations restrict some ingredients provide maximum doses on some vitamins and minerals and prohibit misleading statements and therapeutic claims.Recently a Southern Cross healthcare survey found that at least 750000 people in New Zealand consumed at least some dietary supplements for at least five years. They are widely used by our community. Extending the regulations will mean that our industry can continue to grow while new regulations are developed. In 2019 Natural Health Products New Zealand estimated the wider New Zealand supplement industry contributed $2.3 billion to the New Zealand economy annually and had a five-year compound annual growth rate of 10 percent. This is impressive and points to the strength of our industry and its ability to innovate and utilise some of our unique flora and fauna to produce high-quality products and ingredients and we must continue to support that. I think it's important to recognise that in the context of COVID-19 being able to continue to support the sale of these types of products is an important part of our recovery.The bill makes an extension by changing the expiry date of the regulations in the Food Act 2014 to March 2026. The bill must be passed before 1 March otherwise the regulations expire. If that happens dietary supplements would be regulated by general laws under the Food Act. There would be confusion and uncertainty without clarification of what safety and suitability means in relation to dietary supplements. As I've stated before this matters because dietary supplements are not at all benign in terms of their health impacts. There would likely be an increased risk of unsafe and unsuitable products being sold and many dietary supplements could be determined to be non-compliant. This could result in considerable cost to the industry and regulators in reduced access for consumers. Importing countries may not accept New Zealand dietary supplements without us having specific regulations.Therefore a five-year extension to the regulations is needed to allow consultation and development of new legislation and a minimum two-year transition period. Minister O'Connor has already stated in the last Parliament that it is not our intention that the full five-year period be used but the intention is for a new regime to be fully implemented within five years. But we want this to be a five-year extension to avoid the need to consume the House's time with further extensions and the needless resources of officials. It's important to state that our aim would be to combine these regulations with a therapeutic goods bill which takes a more health approach to the regulation of these products. A five-year extension also allows for us to manage any potential slowdowns due to COVID-19.This bill agreed by the committee reflects considerations of the comments received from submitters. I commend the Food (Continuation of Dietary Supplements Regulations) Amendment Bill to the House.