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The Directorate-General for Food and Veterinary (DGAV) warned today that consignments of sesame seeds from India have been identified with “very high” levels of ethylene oxide, posing a “serious risk” to health. .
“They were identified in September 2020 and notified via the Rapid Alert System for Food and Feed […] very high levels of ethylene oxide compared to certain batches of sesame seeds originating in or shipped to India and which have entered the European Union, ”reads a DGAV notice.
The identified levels are a thousand times higher than the applicable maximum residue limit, thus constituting a “serious risk”, since ethylene oxide is classified as a “category 1B mutagen, category 1B carcinogen and category 1B toxic for reproduction. “.
In this sense, the DGAV stressed that economic operators carrying out or self-checking shipments of sesame (sesame) from India should send their results to [email protected] and [email protected].
Depending on the outcome, this general direction will indicate possible actions to be taken.
“In all non-compliant cases, they must be destroyed and cannot be used for dilution or processing for human or animal food,” he stressed.
In turn, importers “must take care” that the seeds they intend to import comply with the conditions laid down by European legislation on the risk of contamination by pesticide residues.
Therefore, they must be accompanied by an analytical bulletin and an official certificate attesting that the products have been sampled and analyzed.
Shipments must be presented at border control posts.
The DGAV is a central service of the direct government administration, with administrative autonomy.
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