L 119/104
EN
Official Journal of the European Union
5.5.2023
(7)
Certain commodities have uses other than food and for which less strict or no maximum levels for a certain contaminant are applicable.
To enable effective enforcement of the maximum levels for contaminants in these foods, it is appropriate to lay down suitable labelling provisions for those foods.
(8)
Certain fish species originating from the Baltic region may contain high levels of dioxins, dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (‘DL-PCBs’) and non dioxin-like polychlorinated biphenyls (‘NDL-PCBs’).
A significant proportion of those fish species from the Baltic region does not comply with the maximum levels and would therefore be excluded from the diet if the maximum levels were applied.
However, the exclusion of fish from the diet may have a negative impact on the health of the population of the Baltic region.
(9)
Latvia, Finland and Sweden have systems in place to ensure that final consumers are informed of the dietary recommendations for identified vulnerable groups of the population to restrict consumption of fish from the Baltic region in order to avoid health risks.
Therefore, it is appropriate to maintain a derogation to Latvia, Finland and Sweden allowing them to authorise the placing on their respective market for the final consumer without time limit certain fish species originating in the Baltic region with levels of dioxins and/or DL-PCBs and/or NDL-PCBs higher than those set in this Regulation.
In order to allow the Commission to monitor the situation, Latvia, Finland and Sweden should continue to report yearly to the Commission the measures they have taken to effectively inform final consumers of the dietary recommendations and to ensure that fish and products thereof non-compliant with the maximum levels are not marketed in other Member States, as well as the effectiveness of those measures.
(10)
Despite the application of good smoking practices to the extent possible, the current maximum levels for polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (‘PAHs’) are not achievable in several Member States in certain traditionally smoked meats and meat products and traditionally smoked fish and fishery products, where smoking practices cannot be altered without changing significantly the organoleptic characteristics of the food.
Consequently, if maximum levels were applied, such traditionally smoked products would disappear from the market resulting in the closure of many small and medium size enterprises.
That is the case with certain traditionally smoked meat and smoked meat products in Ireland, Spain, Croatia, Cyprus, Latvia, Poland, Portugal, Slovakia, Finland and Sweden and certain traditionally smoked fish and smoked fishery products in Latvia, Finland and Sweden.
Therefore, a derogation for local production and consumption should be maintained without a time limit for certain traditionally smoked meat and smoked meat products and traditionally smoked fish and smoked fishery products only in those Member States.
(11)
Member States are to collect and report data from official controls and from monitoring of contaminants in accordance with control plans and with the specific requirements on official controls of contaminants laid down in Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/931 (3) and in Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/932 (4).
For certain specific contaminants, for which more occurrence data are needed, it is recommended that Member States, food business operators and other interested parties should monitor and report the occurrence data, as well as report on the progress with regard to the application of preventative measures, to allow the Commission to assess the need to modify existing measures or to adopt additional ones.
For the same reasons, it is also appropriate that Member States communicate to the Commission the information they have collected as regards other contaminants.
(3) Commission Delegated Regulation (EU) 2022/931 of 23 March 2022 supplementing Regulation (EU) 2017/625 of the European Parliament and of the Council by laying down rules for the performance of official controls as regards contaminants in food (OJ L 162, 17.6.2022, p. 7).
(4) Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) 2022/932 of 9 June 2022 on uniform practical arrangements for the performance of official controls as regards contaminants in food, on specific additional content of multi-annual national control plans and specific additional arrangements for their preparation (OJ L 162, 17.6.2022, p. 13).