The detection of radioactive waste in some farmed salmon in Scotland and Northern Ireland salmon has highlighted the urgent need for labelling regulations, the Irish Salmon Growers' Association said yesterday.
A 2001 EU regulation which would ensure comprehensive labelling has not yet been transposed into Irish law, said Mr Richie Flynn, the ISGA executive secretary.
According to the Department of Communications, Marine and Natural Resources, the new statutory instrument should be in place within weeks.
On Thursday it emerged that tests by the UK Food Standards Agency found very low traces of Technetium-99 (Tc-99) in fish from one Northern Ireland salmon farm and four Scottish farms. A spokeswoman for the Food Safety Authority of Ireland (FSAI) said the agency would be seeking the report and would be monitoring the situation. The FSAI had no plans to conduct a similar survey because the levels were so low, she said.
The ISGA said the study posed no dangers for Irish consumers. Farmed salmon from this State was only reared on the west coast and was therefore in no danger of any such contamination.
