Brussels, 08/04/2011 (Agence Europe) - Controls have been stepped up on the level of radioactivity in food and feed imported into the EU from Japan. Ceilings established by European legislation (Regulation EURATOM 39/54/1987) for the maximum acceptable levels of radioactive contamination tolerated in food are to be lowered.
The representatives of the 27 EU member states, who met at the EU Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH) in Brussels on Thursday 8 April, approved the European Commission's proposal along these lines. The EU has therefore decided that, for imports from the 12 prefectures of Japan, it should bring its maximum authorised contents for iodine-131, caesium-134 and caesium-137 into line with the draconian levels in force in Japan since the nuclear disaster in Fukushima. This had been announced to the European Parliament by José Manuel Barroso three days ago (see EUROPE 10352).
The new measure toughens the enhanced controls and specific and harmonised import conditions that had been adopted on 25 March (see EUROPE 10345), in order to ensure maximum vigilance for foodstuff and feed harvested or processed after 11 March, and especially for that imported from the 12 high-risk prefectures (Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Miyagi, Yamagata, Niigata, Nagano, Yamanashi, Saitama, Tokyo and Chiba).
In a press release, the European Commission specifies that this is purely a precautionary measure given that “all the checks carried out up to now by member states of Japanese food imports demonstrate negligible levels of radioactivity, which are significantly below existing standards. Furthermore, the Japanese authorities have informed the Commission services that nearly no exports are currently taking place from the 12 prefectures concerned”.
The maximum contents authorised by Regulation EURATOM 39/54/1987 for the various radioactive elements (iodine, caesium, plutonium), for each type of foodstuff, will soon be the subject of review by the scientific committee of experts. If it proves necessary to revise them, the new limit values established may apply in a uniform manner to all EU food imports, whatever their origin. The norms set out in the above-mentioned EURATOM regulation had been fixed the day after the Chernobyl nuclear accident. (A.N./transl.jl)