Foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation. Framework Directive

In accordance with the requirements of the e Directive 1999/2/EC on the approximation of the laws of the Member States concerning foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation, the Commission presents a report giving the details of the approved irradiation facilities in the Member States as well as any changes in their status, and information provided by the national supervisory authorities.

The current report covers the period from 1 January 2008 to 31 December 2008. It contains a compilation of the information forwarded to the Commission by the 27 Member States.

• In 2008, 23 approved irradiation facilities were operational in 12 Member States in accordance with Article 7(2) of Directive 1999/2/EC. One irradiation facility has been approved. No approved irradiation facilities have been closed. Six irradiation facilities did not irradiate any food during 2008.
• A total quantity of 8,718.4 tonnes of products were treated with ionising irradiation in the Member States, 88.55 % of which were irradiated in three Member States:
• Belgium (41.19 %), the Netherlands (35.61 %) and France (10.85 %). The three biggest fractions within the irradiated categories are frog legs (28.16 %), herbs and spices (19.95 %) and poultry (18.97 %). 
• 27 Member States submitted information regarding the checks carried out at the product marketing stage. Three Member States performed no analytical checks in official control and inspection. One of these Member States signalled that under its national legislation food business operators should carry out their own checks to ensure that rules on food irradiation, and other food law, are complied with.
• A total of 6.220 samples have been taken by 24 Member States, three Member States accounted for 70.57% of the samples (Germany 55%, Ireland 7.78% and the Netherlands 7.79%). 6.004 samples (96.53 %) were compliant with the provisions of the Directives. 142 samples (2.28 %) were non compliant. Reasons for non compliance are most often related to incorrect labelling and irradiation of categories for which this is not authorised. 74 samples (1.19 %) gave inconclusive results.
• Reasons for inconclusive results are most often related to non-confirmation after positive results from screening tests and/or to the difficulty to determine which of the ingredients were irradiated, even if they are labelled, in composed foodstuffs.