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The Labelling of Food Regulations specify in two schedules the vitamins and minerals for which claims can be made. The word ‘claim’ has a specific meaning. Vitamins and minerals which are not in the schedule cannot be mentioned at all on a food product except in the nutritional declaration, the name of the product (if it is a food supplement) and the list of ingredients. Anything additional to these three places becomes a claim.

Where it is claimed that the food is a rich or excellent source of vitamins or minerals the quantity of food that can reasonably be expected to be consumed in one day must contain at least one half of the recommended daily amount of two or more of the vitamins or minerals in the schedule. Otherwise the claim that the food contains the vitamins and minerals can only be made if the quantity of food that can reasonably be expected to be consumed in one day contains at least one sixth of the recommended daily amount of two or more of the vitamins or minerals in the list.

If the claim is confined to named vitamins or minerals then every vitamin or mineral named must be specified in one of the schedules and is then subject to the same requirements as before. The names used in declaring the vitamins must be the names in the first column of the schedules, with or without the words that appear in three cases in brackets.

The names for other vitamins are also specified by law, and are: vitamin B₆, pantothenic acid, biotin, vitamin E and vitamin K. The purpose of this is to prevent people making claims for the existence of vitamins that are not recognized by science, such as vitamin B₁₇ and vitamin F.

The following are the two schedules:

Table A Vitamins in respect of which claims may be made

Vitamin	To be calculated as	Recommended daily amount
Vitamin A	Micrograms of retinol or micrograms of retinal equivalent on the basis that 6 μg of beta-carotene or 12 μg of other biologically active carotenoids equal 1 μg of retinol equivalent.	750 μg
Thiamin (vitamin B1)	Milligrams of thiamin.	1.2 mg
Riboflavin (vitamin B2)	Milligrams of riboflavin.	1.6 mg
Niacin	Milligrams of nicotinic acid or milligrams of nicotinamide or milligrams of niacin equivalent on the basis that 60 mg of tryptophan equal 1 mg of niacin equivalent.	18 mg
Folic acid	Micrograms of total folic acid.	300 μg
Vitamin B12	Micrograms of cobalamines.	2 μg
Vitamin C (ascorbic acid)	Milligrams of ascorbic acid or milligrams of dehydroascorbic acid	30 mg
Vitamin D	Micrograms of ergocalciferol (vitamin D2) or micrograms of cholecalciferol (vitamin D3).	25 μg

Table B Minerals in respect of which claims may be made

Mineral	To be calculated as	Recommended daily amount
Calcium	Milligrams of calcium.	500 mg
Iodine	Micrograms of iodine.	140 μg
Iron	Milligrams of iron	12 mg

Notes

1. Each vitamin and mineral specified in Tables A and B above includes its biologically active derivative.

2. The quantity of any vitamin or mineral specified in Table A or B above (as extended by note 1 above) shall be calculated in accordance with column 2 of the appropriate Table.

From Labelling of Food Regulations No. 1305, 1984.

The idea behind these two schedules was to prevent manufacturers from making claims for vitamins and minerals for which there is no evidence of a shortage. So the schedules represent vitamins and minerals which may be short in the diet and, therefore, all other vitamins and minerals are thought to be present in sufficient quantities in any likely diet. Unfortunately this has led to a very confusing situation, especially with regard to the sale of food supplements such as vitamin, mineral and trace element tablets and capsules which contain either a mixture of scheduled and non-scheduled substances or even exclusively non-scheduled substances. It means that neither in advertising nor on the pack can the manufacturer tell the consumer why the ingredient is there and what it does unless it is on the schedule. A mixture of vitamins A, C and E would therefore have a product description telling you all about vitamins A and C but not saying a single word about vitamin E.

There is much doubt as to whether the list is by any means appropriate to modern day living, and there is increasing evidence that there are substantial groups of people who do not have enough zinc, selenium, magnesium, or vitamins B₆ and E. Groups at risk include children and adolescents on a sugary, fatty diet, and women who take the birth control pill and may need far more B₆ than can be obtained in a likely diet. Unless vegetarians are careful they can be short of zinc, and there is a general shortage of selenium in British soil which used to be supplemented by the use of selenium rich Manitoba wheat for bread making, but now that we make most of our bread from British flour, we could have too little in the diet.

A Committee on the Medical Aspects of Food has been convened under the chairmanship of Dr Roger Whitehead to look at this whole question and suggest a new list of Recommended Daily Amounts, but it is not unreasonable to hope that the position of vitamin and mineral pill manufacturers can be regularized before the Committee reports and that regulations can be made so that they are not prevented by law from giving accurate nutritional and biological information about the ingredients to the public—surely an absurd and unnecessary restraint upon our freedom.