§ 60. Mrs. Joyce Butlerasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food if he will seek further advice from the Food Standards Committee on the dangers to health from nitrosamines in food.
§ Mrs. FennerThis is a matter not for the Food Standards Committee, but for the Food Additives and Contaminants Committee and the committee of medical experts appointed by the Chief Medical Officer. Both groups of advisers have had this subject under review for over two years since my right hon. Friend informed the House that new methods of analysis had detected nitrosamines in minute traces in certain foods.
The expert view at that time was that the substances were not expected to indicate a measurable risk to human health at the levels then identified. The committees have been keeping in touch with further research in progress in this country and in other parts of the world and are ready to advise Ministers whenever necessary.