§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food whether he has any proposals to monitor cadmium in food or to initiate studies of concentrations of cadmium in food chains, and in tinned and sea food.
§ Mr. StrangThe working party on the monitoring of foodstuffs for heavy metals, an interdepartmental expert working group which was set up by my right hon. Friend the Minister's predecessor in 1971, has undertaken a detailed programme of surveillance of cadmium levels in food, including tinned and sea food. The data obtained was sufficient to enable the working party to publish a report in 1973—" Survey of Cadmium in Food," HMSO—which summarised the data obtained from the analysis of over 4,000 147W food samples. Copies of the report are available in the Library of the House. This work is continuing and it is expected that this working party will produce a supplementary report on cadmium in early 1980.
§ Mr. Austin Mitchellasked the Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food what research has been done on the average daily intake, in micrograms, of cadmium through food in different parts of Great Britain.
§ Mr. StrangExtensive analyses of average diets in Great Britain have been undertaken on behalf of the working party on the monitoring of foodstuffs for heavy metals since 1974. The average daily intake of cadmium from food has been assessed to be less than 22 micrograms per person in each of the years 1974–77. The results obtained in 1973 are published in the fourth report of the working party on the monitoring of foodstuffs for heavy metals—" Survey of Cadmium in Food ", copies of which are available in the Library of the House.