31/03/2026
🚨 Are your favourite herbal supplements under threat?
Behind closed doors in the EU, regulators are advancing plans that could ban or severely restrict some of the world's most widely used and trusted botanical ingredients — including ashwagandha, turmeric, black cohosh, St. John's Wort, and maca.
The mechanism being used is Article 8 of the EU's Food Fortification Regulation — a rule originally designed to govern how vitamins are added to bread, now being repurposed as a backdoor route to restrict plant-based supplements that have safely served human health for centuries.
13 botanicals have already been identified for restriction. With another 12 reportedly waiting in the wings.
Here's what makes this particularly troubling: regulators are using toxicological models designed for industrial pollutants and applying them to plants — ignoring dose, context, traditional use, and the science of hormesis (the well-established principle that many plant compounds are beneficial at low doses and only potentially harmful at very high ones).
In 2024, the EU General Court ruled precaution can't justify blanket bans without proof of real-world harm at actual intake levels. But the Commission has appealed — and the broader campaign against botanicals continues.
What can YOU do?
✅ Submit your views via the EU's Have Your Say portal
✅ Support the European Citizens' Initiative — we need 1 million signatures across 7 Member States
✅ Back organisations like ANH who are fighting for proportionate, science-based regulation
✅ Share this post — awareness is our most powerful tool right now
Europe has a rich and diverse botanical heritage drawn from Ayurveda, Traditional Chinese Medicine, African traditions, and European herbalism. That heritage deserves protection — not bureaucratic erasure.
Read Rob Verkerk's full analysis 👉 https://anhinternational.org/news/feature-the-european-siege-on-botanicals-why-we-must-combat-the-latest-eu-anti-botanical-push/
