Dilip Ghosh, Director, Nutriconnect, Nutrition and Natural Medicine Consultant

Dr Dilip Ghosh, Director, Nutriconnect, Nutrition and Natural Medicine Consultant

What are the implications of this Directive for the nutraceutical sector?

“Mostly large companies will get advantages in the short-term by deploying due diligence processes which are hugely expensive.

“The ramifications on energy use, supply chains, agriculture, packaging, product claims, ingredients, and labour are vast, and will be a huge financial and technological burden to small to medium industries.

“There should be option for small and medium size industries to be able to adhere to reporting standards on a voluntary basis.

“[The Directive should bring about] better management of non-EU companies operating in the internal market and a higher level of financial and logistic support from local governments or the European Union.”

What steps should companies be taking in response to this Directive?

“Companies need a globally harmonised definition of environmental, social and governance (ESG), which is lacking at this stage. Oftentimes today, sustainability isn’t considered during the initial R&D phase of product development, but this has to be included now.

“Across the nutrition and dietary supplement industry, a rising number of consumers are making purchasing decisions based on products’ ethical and sustainable credentials. Companies should respect this consumer attitude and respond accordingly.”