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Foods and food ingredients treated with ionising radiation. Framework Directive

1988/0169A(COD)

In accordance with Directive 1999/2/EC, the Commission presented a report on food ingredients treated with ionising radiation for the year 2012. The report contains a compilation of the information forwarded to the Commission by 27 Member States.

Irradiation facilities: according to the information submitted by the Member States, the controls carried out by the competent authorities confirmed the compliance of the approved irradiation facilities with the requirements of Directive 1999/2/EC.

In 2012, 24 approved irradiation facilities were operational in 13 Member States in accordance with Article 7(2) of Directive 1999/2/EC. No new irradiation facilities have been approved. No approved irradiation facilities have been closed. Five irradiation facilities did not irradiate any food during 2012.

Quantity of products treated: a total quantity of 7972 tonnes of products were treated with ionising irradiation in EU Member States, 91% of which were irradiated mainly in three Member States: Belgium (64.7%), Netherlands (18.5%) and France (7.7%). The three biggest commodities within the irradiated categories are: frog legs (36%), poultry (35%) and dried aromatic herbs and spices (15%). There has been a slight decrease in the total quantity of products irradiated in the EU compared to the previous year 2011 (8067.5 tonnes).

Checks at the product marketing stage: 27 Member States submitted information regarding the checks carried out at the product marketing stage. Five Member States did not perform any analytical checks in official control and inspection in 2012: Denmark, Estonia, Greece, Cyprus and Sweden.

Analysed samples: a total of 5182 samples have been analysed by 22 Member States, three Member States accounted for 66% of the samples (Germany 52.4%, the Netherlands 7.2%, and United Kingdom 6.2%). 4.979 samples (96.1%) were compliant with the provisions of the Directive, 123 samples (2.4%) were non-compliant, 80 samples (1.5%) gave inconclusive results.

The two main reasons for non-compliance of tested samples were incorrect labelling and forbidden irradiation; non-compliance was also due to irradiation in facilities not approved by the EU. Reasons for noncompliance are given in each table reporting the tests carried out in each Member State.