Responding to growing consumer interest in food safety issues, Japan will tighten its control over agrochemical residues in farm products this month and may reject more food cargoes from abroad out of concerns over safety.
At present the government sets the residue limits for 283 agricultural chemicals such as pesticides, feed additives and veterinary drugs, and prohibits sales in Japan of foods that contain higher-than-acceptable levels of such agrochemicals.
From May 29, the government will increase the number of agrochemicals under its control to 799 substances, which virtually covers all the agrochemicals now in use world-wide. Both domestic and imported foods are subject to the new rule.
Japan's Health Ministry will conduct random tests on imported foods to check if they meet the requirements, and order importers of foods that contain agrochemicals exceeding the residue limits to destroy the products or ship them back to the exporting countries. In the current fiscal year to next March, the ministry plans to test about 20,000 samples of imported foods for around 450 agro-chemicals that are widely used among the 799 substances.
"Under the new rule, we may discover more cases of violations, although we don't expect the number to increase dramatically," a ministry official said, adding that they had asked food-exporting countries for their co-operation in implementing the regulations.
To avoid a major disruption of food supplies to Japan, the world's largest net importer of farm products, the ministry has adopted the residue limits endorsed by the Codex Alimentarius Commission - the organisation charged by the World Trade Organisation with developing international food standards.
In the case of chemicals for which the Codex has not set limits, the ministry has established limits based on the standards of major farm-product exporting countries such as the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the European Union.
But the new limits will be reviewed by Japan's Food Safety Commission - an independent risk-assessment organisation - for possible tightening in the future. For chemicals controlled under the current rules, Japan will continue to use its existing standards under the new system.
The food industry is concerned that the tougher regulation may hinder the smooth flow of grains, oilseeds and other crops from abroad and raise their costs of purchasing raw materials.
"I am afraid that the new system may threaten the stability of food supplies to Japan at low cost," a Japanese corn trader said.