Brussels, 31/08/2001 (Agence Europe) - In a communication adopted on 8 August on the ionisation (irradiation) of foodstuffs, having consulted consumer organisations over the past few months, the European Commission acknowledges that it has come up against the "complexity of the issue" on the possibility of broadening the Community list of products that may be subjected to such treatment in virtue of two directives that took effect on 20 September 2000. For now, this list contains only one category of food: dried aromatic herbs, spices and vegetable seasoning.
The Commission toying with three options: - only adding to the positive list peeled shrimps and frog legs, for which irradiation is an obvious technical necessity; - including products for which irradiation is currently authorised and actually used in certain Member States, while waiting for the establishment of a Community list (deep frozen aromatic herbs, dried fruit, cereal flakes and germs, chicken offal, egg white, gum arabic used as additive, peeled shrimps and frog legs); - considering the current list as complete. The Commission writes that this consultation, conducted since autumn 2000, has "shown that any proposal for establishing a positive Community list could be criticised" by the defenders or detractors of irradiation "and most likely by both".
Since 20 March of this year, all irradiated foodstuff available on the Community market has had to be in compliance with these directives, even though some Member States benefit from exemptions together with the respect of a maximum dosage: Belgium, six products (potatoes, onions, garlic, shallots, frozen frog legs and frozen shrimps); France, sixteen products (aromatic herbs, onions, garlic, shallots, dried fruit and vegetables, flakes and germs of cereal for milk products, rice flour, gum arabic, poultry, mechanically recovered chicken meat, offal of chicken, frozen frog legs, dehydrated blood, plasma, coagulates, frozen shrimps, egg white, casein); Italy, three products (potatoes, onions, garlic); the Netherlands, eight products (pulses, dried vegetables and fruits, flakes from cereals, gum arabic, chicken meat, frozen frog legs, shrimps, egg white) and the United Kingdom, ten products (potatoes, yams, onions, garlic, shallots, vegetables (including pulses), fruit, cereals, poultry, fish and shellfish). These exemptions were granted in the light of opinions of the Scientific Committee on Food between 1986 and 1998.