Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 885/2014 of 13 August 2014 laying down specific conditions applicable to the import of okra and curry leaves from India and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) No 91/2013  Text with EEA relevance

14.8.2014 EN Official Journal of the European Union L 242/20
COMMISSION IMPLEMENTING REGULATION (EU) No 885/2014
of 13 August 2014
laying down specific conditions applicable to the import of okra and curry leaves from India and repealing Implementing Regulation (EU) No 91/2013
(Text with EEA relevance)
THE EUROPEAN COMMISSION
,
Having regard to the Treaty on the Functioning of the European Union,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 28 January 2002 laying down the general principles and requirements of food law, establishing the European Food Safety Authority and laying down procedures in matters of food safety (1), and in particular Article 53(1)(b)(ii) thereof,
Having regard to Regulation (EC) No 882/2004 of the European Parliament and of the Council of 29 April 2004 on official controls performed to ensure the verification of compliance with feed and food law, animal health and animal welfare rules (2), and in particular Article 15(5) thereof,
Whereas:
(1) Article 53 of Regulation (EC) No 178/2002 provides for the possibility to adopt appropriate Union emergency measures for feed and food imported from a third country in order to protect human health, animal health and the environment, where the risk cannot be contained satisfactorily by means of measures taken by the Member States individually.
(2) Commission Regulation (EC) No 669/2009 (3) establishes an increased level of official controls on imports of certain feed and food of non-animal origin.
(3) Amongst other, an increased frequency of official controls on import has been established for more than two years on curry leaves and for nearly two years on okras from India as regards pesticide residues.
(4) The results from the increased frequency of controls show a continuous high frequency of non-compliance with maximum residue levels of pesticide residues established in Union legislation and several times very high levels were observed. These results provide evidence that the import of these foods constitutes a risk for human health. No improvement of the situation could be observed after this period of increased frequency of controls at Union borders. Furthermore, no concrete and satisfactory action plan to remediate the shortcomings and deficiencies in the production and control systems was received from the Indian authorities, despite the explicit request from the European Commission.
(5) To protect human health in the Union, it was necessary to provide for additional guarantees in relation to those food from India. Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 91/2013 (4) therefore provided that all consignments of curry leaves and okra from India should therefore be accompanied by a certificate stating that the products have been sampled and analysed for the presence of pesticide residues and have been found compliant with Union legislation.
(6) To ensure an efficient organisation and a degree of uniformity at the Union level of the controls at import on the presence of aflatoxins in certain feed and food from certain third countries, it is appropriate to have all feed and food from third countries subject to specific conditions because of the presence of aflatoxins into one Regulation. Therefore the provisions as regards groundnuts from India and Ghana and watermelon seeds from Nigeria should be integrated into one Regulation with the provisions foreseen in Commission Regulation (EC) No 1152/2009 (5).
(7) In order to ensure an efficient organisation and a degree of uniformity at the Union level of the controls at import, it is appropriate to provide in this Regulation for control procedures for the physical control on pesticide residues on curry leaves and okra from India which are equivalent to the existing measures as provided for in Commission Regulation (EC) No 669/2009.
(8) The sampling and the analysis of consignments should be performed in accordance with the relevant Union legislation. The maximum residue levels for pesticide residues are established by Regulation (EC) No 396/2005 of the European Parliament and of the Council (6). The provisions on sampling for the official control of pesticide residues are established by Commission Directive 2002/63/EC (7).
(9) The measures provided for in this Regulation are in accordance with the opinion of the Standing Committee on Plants, Animals, Food and Feed,