Denmark faces legal action in the European Court of Justice over its refusal to allow food enriched with vitamins to be marketed in the country unless a "nutritional need" has been documented in Denmark. A statement by the European Commission this week says the Danish practice creates "unjustified trade barriers" within the internal market, in violation of EC Treaty rules on the free movement of goods for enriched food products that are legally produced or sold in other EU countries. The Commission stated that a member state could, in some circumstances, ban the import and marketing of foodstuffs from other EU countries in order to protect public health. However, according to the case law of the Court of Justice the burden of proof is on the Member State concerned to demonstrate that a complete ban is justified "The lack of a specific nutritional need for a particular additive does not, in the Commission's view, mean that the additive is necessarily a danger to public health," says the statement. France and the Netherlands are currently before the Court of Justice for similar trade barriers concerning enriched foodstuffs.
