Following the accident at the Fukushima Nuclear Power Station on 11 March 2011, the European Union decided to reinforce control on the importation of food products and feed coming from Japan as a way of limiting possible food safety risks. For this reason, the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 284/2012, of 29 March 2011, imposing special conditions governing the import of feed and food originating in or consigned from Japan following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station, was adopted and modified several times.

The existing measures have been revised recently, following analysis of the data collected in the last two harvests, via the Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 996/2012 of 26 October 2012, imposing special conditions governing the import of feed and food originating in or consigned from Japan following the accident at the Fukushima nuclear power station, which replaced the existing Regulation.

Commission Implementing Regulation (EU) No 996/2012 puts in place measure which affect, according to Article 1, the food and animal feed produced in or coming from Japan, excluding products which have been harvested and/or processed before 11 March 2011; the products which left Japan before 28 March 2011; the alcoholic drinks classified from CN codes 2203 to 2208; the personal shipments of feed and food of an animal origin which are covered by Article 2 of Regulation (EC) No 206/2009; and the personal shipments of feed and food which are not of animal origin, which are not commercial and which are destined for a specific individual for his or her personal consumption and use.

Consequently, the feed and food (“products”) shall be adapted in accordance with maximum levels for the sum of caesium-134 and caesium-137 established in Annex II of the Regulation, with some exceptions included in Annex III.

The set of planned measures is as follows:

• The competent authorities at the Border Inspection Posts (BIP) or the Designated Points of Entry (DPE) must be notified at least two working days before the arrival of such goods into the EU.
• The competent authorities at the BIPs or DPEs will perform checks on the documentation of all shipments of products to which Article 1 refers, and conduct physical inspections of the identity of at least 5% of the shipments, including laboratory analysis to detect the presence of caesium-134 and caesium-137. Each shipment shall include a valid statement, drawn up in conformity with Annex I and signed by an authorised representative. The statement should certify that the products meet current legislation in Japan and it should specify whether the transitory measures of Japanese legislation apply or not. This statement should also certify one of the following eventualities:

1. that the products have been harvested and/or processed before 11 March 2011, or
2. that the products, with the exception of the tea and mushrooms from the prefecture of Shizuoka and the mushrooms from the prefecture of Yamanashi, come from a different prefecture to the 10 stated in the Regulation, or
3. that the products come from one of the 10 prefectures appearing in the Regulation, but they do not appear in Annex IV of this Regulation (and, therefore, they do not require any analysis before export), or
4. that the products are consigned from one of the 11 prefectures laid down in the Regulation, but they do not originate in one of these prefectures nor have been exposed to radioactivity during transit (including those products caught or raised in coastal waters of these prefectures, regardless of the port in which they were offloaded); or
5. that, if the product is tea or mushrooms from the prefecture of Shizuoka or mushrooms from the prefecture of Yamanashi, or a product derived from its transformation or a composite feed or food which contains more than 50% of these products, this product will have an analytical report containing the results of the sample and analysis; or
6. that, if the products appearing in Annex IV of this Regulation come from the 10 prefectures established in the Regulation, or if the product is a composite feed or food containing more than 50% of these products, the product is accompanied by an analytical report containing the results of the sample and the analysis. The list of products appearing in Annex IV is established without prejudice to the requirements of Regulation (EC) No 258/97 of the European Parliament and Council, of 27 January 1997, concerning novel foods and novel food ingredients; or
7. that, if more than 50% of the origin of the product or of the ingredients present is unknown, the product is accompanied by an analytical report containing the results of the sample and the analysis.

Products that do not comply with the provisions of this Regulation shall not be placed on the market.Such products shall be safely disposed of or returned to the country of origin.

This Implementing Regulation (EU) no 996/2012 will apply from the day it comes into effect until 31 March 2014 and it will be reviewed before 31 March 2013, in relation to the products which are harvested mainly between August and November, because the information from the 2012 harvest is not yet available, and in the case of fish and fish related products. Outline of the adopted measures: