Foodlaw-Reading
Dr David Jukes, The University of Reading, UK
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EP ENVI Committee Newsletter, 7 September 2017
The following news relates to an item for discussion at the meetings of the Committee on the Environment, Public Health and Food Safety taking place on 7th and 11 September.
Consideration and vote on motion for a resolution
Following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station special conditions governing the import of feed and food originating in or consigned from Japan were laid down in implementing Regulation 2016/6. This draft measure amends Implementing Regulation (EU) No 2016/6, and provides that based on the data submitted by the Japanese authorities, for feed and food products originating in the prefecture of Fukushima, it is appropriate to lift the requirement of sampling and analysis before export to the Union for rice and products derived thereof. The objectors oppose the draft measure on the grounds that the Commission’s draft proposal now only requires that a limited list of food and feed from twelve prefectures be accompanied by a declaration from the Japanese authorities attesting that the products comply with the maximum contamination limits in force in Japan. The objectors state that once amended as proposed by the Commission, Implementing Regulation 2016/6 will no longer require that Member States inform the Commission every three months through the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed of all analytical results.
Furthermore, the objectors state this draft proposal deletes, without justification, from Annex II, rice and derived products from Fukushima prefecture, which means that there will no longer be any obligation on Japanese authorities to attest to their compliance with maximum radioactive contamination levels. The draft motion for a resolution calls on the Commission, when drafting its new proposal, to, inter alia, make sure that all food and feed imported from Japan into the Union, are subject to controls and verification, to ensure that there is no corresponding negative impact on the levels of radioactive contamination of imported food and feed into the Union, as well as to make immediately publicly available, the analysis on which it based its draft proposal.
