Luxembourg, 13/07/2005 (Agence Europe) - This week, the European Court of Justice confirmed in its ruling on the Alliance for Natural Health case that the “positive list” system is appropriate in the directive for relating to food supplemented. The directive establishes a “positive list” system under which only vitamins and minerals included on the lists in the annexes to the directive can be marketed in the Community, explains the Court of Justice in a press release. By 1 August 2005, trade in products which do not comply with the directive must be banned. Alliance for Natural Health (a Europe-wide association of manufacturers, wholesalers, distributors, retailers and consumers of food supplements), Nutri-Link Ltd (a small distributor and retailer), the National Association of Health Stores and the Health Food Manufacturers Association (trade associations representing around 580 companies, the majority of which are small firms which distribute dietary products in the United Kingdom) challenged the validity of the regulations transposing Directive 2002/46/EC into the law of England and Wales. They took the view that the provisions of the directive prohibiting trade in products which do not comply with the directive infringe a number of principles of Community law and were adopted on the wrong legal basis. The Court rejected the applicants' arguments, claiming that only banning substances included on a negative list might not suffice to ensure the protection of human health: 'A negative list system might not suffice to achieve the same objective. Such a system could result in a substance being freely used in the manufacture of food supplements even though, for example by reason of its novelty, it had not been subject to any scientific assessment proving that it posed no risk to human health.'