Brussels, 24/11/2011 (Agence Europe) - Post-Fukushima measures which, from 24 March this year, dramatically toughened checks on foodstuffs being imported into the EU from Japan are to be adapted and extended by three months, until 31 March 2012, the Commission has announced.
On Thursday 24 November, member state experts meeting in the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health approved a Commission proposal. Checks conducted by the Japanese authorities continue to reveal levels of radioactivity higher than maximum authorised levels in some foodstuffs and animal feeds from prefectures close to the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, thus justifying the extension. The Commission states, however, that, in the EU, the risks for food safety as a result of the nuclear accident are extremely low, as is confirmed by the controls carried out by member states on food and feeds at import. The extension of the measures is, then, purely precautionary, the Commission says. The measures have been slightly amended. The prefecture of Nagano will be removed from the list of 13 prefectures from which all exports of foodstuffs and animal feeds are to be monitored, and testing for iodine-131 will no longer be required as no new releases of I-131 into the environment have been reported recently. (AN/transl.rt)