«Interesting training programme with great experts…all EU authorities dealing with botanicals should follow this course” Joris Geelen, former expert of the Belgian Government, Food Law Consultant

Key aim: to support the training and professionalism of researchers, technicians, inspectors  to improve their knowledge of quality control and technologies for raw plant materials and food supplements based on plants.

Training objectives:

• To improve participants’ skills and knowledge in the risk assessment of botanicals and confer a competitive edge to Businesses that produce and market botanicals, or products with plant derivatives.
• To provide participants with the knowledge and the skills required for working in a professional manner in an international environment, in line with recent developments in the field.

Who is aimed at:

The course is designed for researchers, personnel of SMEs  and industry working on the development, marketing or quality of botanical ingredients and/or plant food supplements and  for personnel of national authorities such as inspectors and officials.

The first round of the course involved over 100 participants (from Italy, Spain, Greece, Poland, Slovak Republic, UK, Croatia, UK, Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Jordan, India and Yemen) and  the evaluation survey showed that  82% rated the course as very good to excellent .

About the course:

Lecturers and trainers are chosen among academics, officers of national authorities and leading international experts in the field. In addition to general background lectures, the course focuses on operational procedures and practice. Many aspects are tested in practical exercises and  there is ample use of specific case study material.

The curriculum is divided in 5 modules:

Module I – Advanced analytical methods and GLP (LC-MS, NMR, HPLC, ISO 17025)

Module II  – GMP, GAP, HACCP (EU and US regulations, regulatory management of plant products in EU MS)

Module III – Regulations on Botanicals (EFSA approach, tradition of use, composition-based risk assessment, food  toxicology, botanicals risk assessment,  ePlantLIBRA database – containing information about plant- and plant-food supplement, bioactive compounds with putative health benefits and adverse effects)

Module IV – Safety assessment of botanicals preparations (Quality issues: biodiversity, authentication and quality control, adulteration, authenticity and Purity testing)

Module V – Planning and management of official controls (Official controls in the EU: the role of FVO, evaluation of notification dossiers and special ingredients in some EU countries)

Practical information:

• Each training module is organized as a 2-day workshop with a mix of in person and from the distance experts (in live streaming or videos with live sessions for questions).
• A dedicated web page within EuroFIR PlantLIBRA microsite for live streaming, training materials and  videos lessons  (to be watched any time) will be available for registered participants
• Additional online activities
• Certificates of Attendance or Completion (upon completion of the exams) for each training module
• The course is also available as distance learning

For more information on next dates, registration and course fee, please contact [email protected]

A joint investigation conducted by the BBC’s Trust me, I’m a Doctor (Episode: Do herbal supplements contain what they say on the label?) and University College London (UK) has questioned quality control in the botanicals sector. Herbal products are available in various forms in the UK market: they can be sold as “traditional herbal medicines” or as “food supplements”. While the traditional herbal medicines are strictly controlled, food supplements are largely unregulated. Despite being perceived as natural and therefore safe, these products can have significant side-effects caused by contaminants, dose and interactions with foods and pharmaceuticals. 

The composition of 70 traditional herbal medicines and food supplements were examined. Whilst every traditional herbal medicines contained the ingredients declared on the label, food supplements varied considerably; some products contain no active compound whilst others were of poor quality or contained other substances. The investigation concluded that whilst the food supplements sector is largely unregulated, traditional herbal medicines are much better controlled under relevant European legislation meaning the information provided to consumers is more accurate. For more information visit link BBC’s website here.

 To go further

Luca Bucchini, EU food law and botanicals expert, called for better EU regulation on the quality of botanicals, not only a revision of the food supplements Directive (FSD) as, “weak enforcement, not food supplement law, is the cause of the same problems, in the UK, in the US and across the EU” in an interview with NutraIngredients (16th July 2015). 

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June – September 2015

Rome, Aqaba, Tunis, Egypt,  all courses will be available as distance learning.

Organised by Hylobates Consulting (IT) in cooperation with the University of Ioannina (GR),
Ben-Hayyan Laboratories of Aqaba (Jordan), NRC (Egypt) and (The University of Wageningen (NL).

Activity: 4 modules of 3 days each, from Monday to Wednesday

Objectives: this training course is organised within the framework of the project BRAMA (Botanicals Risk assessment training in the Mediterranean Area) co-financed by the EU through the ENPI CBC MED Programme. The training is targeted for young technicians working in SMEs/industry and inspectors/officials of regulatory authorities in the field of botanicals or food supplements with botanicals ingredients.The overall objective of the Course is to provide participants with the knowledge and the skills required for working in a professional manner in an international environment, in line with recent developments in their scope and nature.

Participants: 20 for all modules and no restrictions as distance learning or for single modules.

Read the training announcement here.

Submission deadline: 5 June, 2015

Applicants must fill in the application form and attach their CV.

Application form – DOWNLOAD

Tuition fee: covered by the project; for single modules registration, subsistence should be covered by participants

For more information, please contact:

 Hylobates Consulting S.r.l

Via Tarsia 61 – 00135 Roma

[email protected]

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About Identification of Medicinal Products Standard (IDMP)

“Identification of Medicinal Products” (IDMP) is a new global data standard that has been published by the International Standards Organisation (ISO) and has already been adopted by the US, European and Japanese Health Regulators and promoted by the WHO Uppsala Monitoring Centre (WHO UMC). The IDMP covers all medicinal products derived from plants but doesn’t apply directly to plant food supplements.

The IDMP standard provides harmonised data formats on herbal medicine. It is aimed at improving: (1) the quality of data which will enable regulators to check plant names used to register new products, and (2) the communication between industry and regulators about controlled substances and whether the composition of each medicinal product contains plants.

To go further

Read here the article from the Kew’s Medicinal Plant Names Services (MPNS-UK) on the key aims of the Identification of Medicinal Products Standard and how the standard will ensure better consistency in the herbal medicinal business.  

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