§ Mr. Kinseyasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food when he expects to receive the Report of the Working Party on the Monitoring of Foods for Heavy Metals on lead in food; and if he will make a statement.
§ Mr. PriorI have now received this report, which is being published today and copies are being placed in the Library and in the Vote Office. The Report has been submitted to the Food Additives and Contaminants Committee, and to the Pharmacology Sub-Committee of the Committee on Medical Aspects of Food Policy. Their advice is published in appendices to the report. The committee's conclusion is that there is no evidence of harm to health from present levels of lead in food comprising the diet of the average consumer. The committee has made two recommendations—that a further study of a particular local problem be commissioned, and that a change in the present regulations should be made. My right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services and I have accepted these recommendations.
The study which is being put in hand will investigate the body burden of lead of consumers of shell fish taken from 367W waters where lead concentrations are higher than average. The Government's medical advisers will assess the significance of the results obtained.
The change in regulations concerns baby foods. The Government's expert advisers consider that for this particular group it is desirable that the safety margin should be as large as possible and have recommended, therefore, that efforts be made to bring down the average lead content of baby foods to the average level, or preferably below the average level, found in the national diet as a whole. The monitoring has indicated that the average level of lead in these foods when in cans is above the average in the national diet as a whole, although there is no evidence that this has resulted in any risk to health, and in the case of every individual sample of baby foods tested the level of lead found was well below the present statutory limit. Measures already taken are reducing the average for canned baby foods, which is expected to fall during the year to the lower level considered desirable. To support this change, my right hon. Friend the Secretary of State for Social Services and I have accepted the recommendation that there should be a separate category for baby foods in the Lead in Food Regulations which it is proposed to bring into effect at a level of 0.5ppm. Similar action is being taken in Scotland and Northern Ireland.
A general periodical review of the Lead in Food Regulations was due to be undertaken by the Food Additives and Contaminants Committee, and this is now to be put in hand taking account of the data obtained from the monitoring.
I shall continue the monitoring for lead on the revised basis recommended by the Food Additives and Contaminants Committee and proceed with the monitoring for other heavy metals, particularly cadmium. I hope that the working party's report on cadmium in food will be published later this year.