It’s about the limit values for toxic heavy metals in food. These are to be reduced in the EU in order to prevent cancer.
Brussels – As part of the European plan to fight cancer, new limits for certain heavy metals in a variety of foods come into effect this week.
For baby food, spices, wines and salt, for example, stricter or additional maximum levels for lead apply from Monday onwards. From Tuesday there will also be new cadmium limit values for a number of fruits, vegetables and grains as well as oil seeds.
“As part of the European plan to fight cancer, we have committed to further reducing the content of carcinogenic ingredients,” said EU Health Commissioner Stella Kyriakides about the entry into force of the new rules of the German Press Agency. The move is another concrete example that in the EU the consumer always comes first when it comes to food.
The background to the new limit values for the heavy metal lead is based on findings that there is no threshold below which damage to human health can be safely ruled out. In the case of cadmium, according to the EU Commission, new data have shown that it is possible to reduce the content in many foods. dpa
