Related
Stories
The salmon issue again highlights the complexity of Europe's food chain |
The ban
does not apply to Baltic salmon sold to domestic consumers in Sweden, Finland
and Latvia. But the sellers are required to give advice about safe limits for
consumption, set by the EU.
Dioxins
found in Baltic herring and salmon prompted the EU ban in 2002.
A French
firm imported 103 tonnes of Swedish salmon, but no longer does so.
Pecheries
Nordiques told the AFP news agency that its tests had found no problems with
the fish, imported in 2011 and 2012. "Nobody told us it was illegal,"
chief executive Francois Agussol said.
Jan
Sjoegren of Sweden's National Food Agency told the BBC that Baltic salmon had
also been exported illegally to Denmark and the Netherlands from Sweden.
The agency
has alerted the European Commission, which deals with national food safety
authorities.
A firm in
Karlskrona has been reported to the Swedish customs authorities over the salmon
exports, and a firm in Hammaroe is also being investigated, Mr Sjoegren said.
Dioxin
hazard
The latest
alert about Baltic salmon exports follows a horsemeat contamination scandal in
the EU which affected many countries.
"We
don't think more salmon is being exported now, but because of the horsemeat
scandal we are stepping up action on food fraud," Mr Sjoegren said.
Sweden's National Food Agency says the average intake of dioxins among adult Swedes is
well below the "tolerable weekly intake" set by the EU.
Children
and young women, it adds, should especially limit their consumption of wild
Baltic fish because dioxins pose the most risk to babies and young children.
Dioxins
spread by incineration and chemical pollution can accumulate in the body over
years and can trigger cancer or reproductive abnormalities.
The European Food Safety Authority says that, on average, Baltic herring and wild
Baltic salmon are respectively 3.5 and five times more contaminated with
dioxins than non-Baltic herring and farmed salmon.
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.