FSA News Item, 29 November 2012
The Food Standards Agency has today removed all remaining Chernobyl sheep control legislation in Wales. The controls had been put in place due to raised levels of radioactivity, following the Chernobyl nuclear accident in 1986.
Sheep in some upland parts of the UK were subject to these controls under the Food Protection (Emergency Prohibitions) (Radioactivity in Sheep) Order 1991(SI 1991/5).
The results of a peer-reviewed assessment demonstrated that radiocaesium levels in sheep were a very low food chain risk, even to high-level consumers, and that controls were no longer necessary. All movement controls ended in Wales on the 1 June 2012. The ending of movement controls made the remaining legislation redundant.
Welsh Government has also revoked the associated Export of Sheep (Prohibition) Order 1991 (SI 1991/58).