Legislation

Directive 1999/2/EC: General – Bringing together the EU countries' laws

Directive 1999/3/EC: Implementing – EU list of irradiated food and food ingredients

EU countries must use validated or standardised analytical methods to detect irradiated foods.

Foods & food ingredients authorised for irradiation in the EU

Currently, these are:

Fruit and vegetables including root vegetables
Cereals, cereal flakes, rice flour
Spices, condiments
Fish, shellfish
Fresh meats, poultry, frog legs
Raw milk camembert
Gum arabic, casein/caseinates, egg white
Blood products

Please see the list of Member States’ authorisations of food and food ingredients which may be treated with ionising radiation.

Please see the list of approved facilities for the treatment of foods and food ingredients with ionising radiation in the Member States.

EU approved facilities in third countries for the irradiation of foods

Please see the list of approved facilities in third countries for the irradiation of foods

Evaluation of the EU legal framework on food irradiation

This evaluation assessed whether the current EU legislative framework related to the irradiation of food and food ingredients was still fit for purpose and delivered as expected. It focused on whether the objectives of the legislation such as the free movement of irradiated foodstuffs within the internal market while at the same time ensuring safe food and a high degree of protection of human health and the environment has been achieved and also whether the objectives were still relevant. See the outcome of the evaluation

Analytical methods

The analytical methods for the detection of irradiated foods are standardised by the European Committee for Standardisation (CEN). CEN has standardised the methods upon a Commission mandate.

The European standards have been adopted by the Codex Alimentarius Commission as General Methods and are referred to in the Codex General Standard for Irradiated Foods in section 6.4 on 'Post-irradiation verification'.