The salt producers lose their lawsuit against a researcher at the Inserm

The salt producers, who were pursuing a researcher at the Inserm for having accused of minimizing the risks of excess salt on health, have lost their Thursday defamation trial before the criminal court in Paris. The remarks incriminated by the CSF of France (CSF), the union which accounts for most of french salt producers, dating back to 2006. Pierre Meneton, a researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research, said at the time, in an interview with monthly TOC, "the lobby of salt producers and the food sector was very powerful" and "professionals désinformait the health and the media ". The article, titled "Food Scandal: salt, defect," was accompanied by a box of salt containing the words "salt kills", comparable to that found on cigarette packets. Also prosecuted the journalist who wrote the article, Peter Cattan, and the director of publication, Arnauld Champremier. Even before you can get to the merits, the 17th Chamber of TGI has cancelled its judgement in the case against Mr. Meneton, due to a procedural error. Considering that about alleged, "critical appraisal given by a scientist," was "not defamatory", it has also released MM. Champremier and Cattan. According to the court, "it's only the evocation of a general question on the excessive use of a natural product which, whatever its relevance, does not exceed the limits of freedom expression in a democratic society ". In addition, the judges are, "the title of the article and the endorsement made on the box of salt (...) are as criticism of a product", or "assessments, even excessive, affecting products, services or benefits are not included in the forecasts "French law on defamation. In addition, they stressed, if the researcher critical salt, "the product is not denigrated itself, the quality of french salt was, in particular, not questioned." At the hearing on January 31, M. Meneton recalled that France, excess salt was responsible for 100 deaths per day due to cardiovascular disease particularly favoured by hypertension. In court, he said "not surprised" Prosecution of CSF, salt producers "who stayed the American equivalent of Inserm" in 2003 and similar prosecutions have taken place in Britain in 2005. In both cases, he recalled, "they lost." According to the French Agency for food safety, the scientific community generally agrees that 4 grams of salt is enough to cover the daily needs of an adult. However, the French consume two to three times more. Called to the stand as witnesses, the former Director General of Health Joel Menard and the journalist Point Christophe Labbé had supported the researcher, that he had himself "suffered the full brunt of disinformation." "It has been more than 20 years that a lobby of salt because of misinformation about the link between excessive salt and deleterious effects on health (...) while dozens of scientific publications is to the contrary" he testified, accusing the lobby to produce "net figures" including salt hidden préincorporé in foods. "Shortcuts" which had risen against the former Executive Director of the Board, Bernard Moinier, but may produce no studies to support its arguments. © 2008 AFP. All rights of reproduction and distribution reserved. All information displayed on this section (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights held by AFP. Therefore, none of this information may be reproduced, modified, redistributed, translated, commercially exploited or used in any manner whatsoever without the prior.