Press Release: Food safety: the EU reinforces controls on imports from Japan

In order to further limit possible risks to the safety of its Food Chain, the European Union decided to reinforce controls on imports of food and feed from certain regions of Japan, where production could be affected by the accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, March 2011.

Member States endorsed, at a meeting of the Standing Committee on the Food Chain and Animal Health (SCoFCAH), a Commission proposal to impose special import conditions. The measures apply to all feed and food originating in or consigned from 12 prefectures of Japan, including the four most affected by the accident. All products from these prefectures have to be tested before leaving Japan and will be subject to random testing in the EU. Feed and food products from the remaining 35 prefectures will have to be accompanied by a declaration stating the prefecture of origin and will be randomly tested upon arrival in the EU. The Union will review these measures every month.

• Primary Source

European Commission: Memo/11/215: Questions and Answers: Safety of food products imported from Japan http://europa.eu/rapid/pressReleasesAction.do?reference=MEMO/11/215&format=HTML&aged=0&language=EN&guiLanguage=en

Süddeutsche Zeitung, 31.3.11: Europe 'in a state of nuclear emergency' (via PressEurop) http://www.presseurop.eu/en/content/news-brief/577671-europe-state-nuclear-emergency

---