von der Leyen – Kishida – Michel- Photo © European Union 2023
(BRUSSELS) – At the EU-Japan Summit Thursday, Commission president Ursula von der Leyen announced that the Commission is lifting the import restrictions for food following the nuclear accident at Fukushima.
The lifting of the measures, it says, stems from positive results from controls done on the products by the Japanese authorities and the Member States.
Shortly after the accident, the EU took the necessary measures to protect human health against possible radioactive contamination from food and feed imported from Japan and imposed thorough pre-export testing of food products for radioactivity.
Since the adoption of these restrictions in 2011, the measures have been reviewed by the Commission every second year and have been progressively eased as risks declined. The last review took place in September 2021 and limited the pre-export testing restrictions to wild mushrooms, some fish species and wild edible plants.
A strict maximum level of 100 Bq/kg has been in place in the EU for food from Japan since June 2011. This maximum has always been fully respected, demonstrating the effectiveness of the Japanese control and monitoring systems.
Now that the restrictions have been fully lifted, it is however important that the Japanese government continues to monitor domestic production for radioactivity. This includes in particular fish, fishery products and seaweed close to the release site of the contaminated cooling water. They should be monitored for the presence of radionuclides, including tritium. It is also important that the Japanese government makes all the results publicly available.
