15d • General discussions
This is why you do not ingest EO's unless under qualified supervision
I wrote this 7 years ago..... still pertinent today.
MORE OF A FACT CHECK THAN A RANT.
The FDA (USA) has granted a GRAS to the likes of the company below. GRAS basically means 'fit for human consumption'. HOWEVER when granted GRAS status it comes with strict guidelines as Essential Oils are indeed used as food additives in the food industry for FLAVOURINGS or preservatives.
These oils are normally deterpinated, meaning that they have increased bioavailability, or/and rectified, which means the 'dangerous stuff' which could be poisonous when ingested has been removed and/or fractionated to remove terpenes, like Limonene (Limonene is one of the most powerful de-greasers known and is extracted and used in many cleaning products and in the motor industry for example) .On top of this when 'essential oils' are added to food it has a MAXIMUM 'dosage' set by GRAS of 2 drops per litre of water/liquid/equivalent. So to take a drop of Lemon Essential Oil in a glass of water is way above the recommendation and has not gone through the above processes to make it safe or dispersable in water. (Think of your Jif lemon juice). Don't even get me started on reps telling people to take these oils sublingually and neat!
Back to the FDA. As many of you might know, the 2 companies in question were told they must not make any medical claims that "this oil will cure that" etc. Well, we know that they still continue to do so. Technically speaking, each rep that does this should be reported to the FDA, but of course nobody does, and the FDA would need a hell of a lot of reports to take action. To get around FDA/GRAS laws/rules and regulations, they label their Essential Oils bottles as 'supplements'. Essential Oils are not supplements! Supplements mean that it has nutritional value above what you get in your food. EO's contain no nutritional value whatsoever.
So to the UK. The equivalent of the FDA is the MHRA (Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency) which is one of 7 which come under the FSA (Food Standards Agency). To have anything which is ingested in the UK you have to obtain a licence from the MHRA before you can supply to the general public. NEITHER ONE of these companies have such a license in the UK and yet continue to label their bottles as 'supplements'. I took this up with CAB...because that is where you have to start for reports to go back to the FSA or MHRA. CAB were very shocked when I gave them the photographic evidence....but did anything get done? No.
So, where does this leave you the UK general public legally if you have followed the 'advice' of a rep to drink the Lemon Essential Oil, or take Peppermint Oil internally for digestive issues for example, and you end up with all sorts of internal injuries and in extreme case liver and/or renal failure, or at best sensitised to anything that has limonene in it like your washing up liquid? Could you sue the rep for injury or endangerment? They are not insured, so probably not. Could you report them to the FSA/MHRA? Yes. Will they do anything as in criminal charges against the rep? Probably not, because it is the 'Company' they would have to prosecute and the small print says they will not be held liable for any advice that their 'advocates' (read reps) give. They might finally take issue with their labelling of 'supplements' and lack of licence....but at what cost?
At least 2 very young children that we so far know of, have died in the USA because the parents followed the dangerous advice of the rep. The parents were prosecuted as far as I can see. If this happens in the UK, the same will happen because there is qualified advice out there as in Aromatherapists who you, as a parent should have sought advice from.
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This is why you do not ingest EO's unless under qualified supervision
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