In order to monitor and provide instructions to ensure the safety of foods, etc., imported into Japan (hereafter referred to as “imported foods, etc.”), the government established the imported food monitoring and instruction program in 2010 (hereinafter, “the program”). The program is based on the guidelines for monitoring and providing instructions in food sanitation (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Notification No. 301, 2003) as per the regulations of Article 23, Paragraph 1 of the Food Sanitation Act (Act No. 233, 1947; hereinafter, “the Act”); public comments were collected and risk communication was conducted. The program was published in the Official Gazette as an official report according to the regulations of Paragraph 3 of the same article, and the monitoring and instruction for imported foods, etc., is being conducted based upon the Program.

This document presents an outline of the implementation status of the monitoring and instruction for imported foods, etc., conducted in accordance with the program, for the period April to September 2010.

The Imported Foods Monitoring and Guidance Plan is a plan for the implementation of monitoring and guidance conducted by the national government with respect to imported foods (Article 23, paragraph 1 of the Act).

[Objective] To ensure greater safety of imported foods by promoting the national government to conduct inspections at the time of importation and to conduct monitoring of and guidance for importers in an intensive, effective and efficient manner.

Based on Article 4 of the Food and Safety Basic Act (Act No.48 of 2003) (that is, food safety shall be ensured by taking appropriate measures at each stage of the domestic and overseas food supply process), the Plan is prepared in order that three stages of sanitation measures are taken, namely, in the exporting country, at the time of importation, and at the time of domestic distribution.

Looking at the declarations, inspections and violations made from April through September of 2010 (Table 1), there were 1,011,512 [903,873] declarations, and the weight of declared items was 12,013 [11,791] million tons.

Inspections were carried out on 128,344 items (there were inspection orders on 62,498 items, monitoring on 28,103 items, and voluntary inspections on 37,743 items) [108,390 items (inspection orders on 54,221 items, monitoring on 24,200 items, and voluntary inspections on 29,969 items)]. Of these, 736 cases [660 cases] were found to be in violation of the Act, and steps were taken for their re-shipment, disposal, etc.

Records of violations categorized by Article (Table 2) show that violations of Article 11 of the Act, which is related to microbiological criteria for food, standards on residual agricultural chemicals and standards for the use of additives, were most common in 394 instances, followed by violations of Article 6, which is related to contamination with hazardous or toxic substances such as aflatoxin, in 229 instances, violations of Article 10, which is related to restrictions on the sale of additives, in 69 instances, violations of Article 18, which is related to standards for apparatus or containers and packaging, in 62 instances, and violations of Article 18 (applied mutatis mutandis to Article 62) of the Act, which is related to standards for toys, in 9 instances.

Records of monitoring in FY 2010 (Table 3) show that, out of a total of 85,018 planned inspections, 50,684 were actually conducted. (That’s an implementation rate of about 60%.) Of these, a total of 113 constituted violations of the Food Sanitation Act, resulting in recalls and enhanced monitoring to identify possible future violations (Table 4). Additionally, as a result of enhanced monitoring, the monitoring system has been strengthened for imported foods, etc. which are considered to have a high probability of violating the Food Sanitation Act, by making them subject to inspection orders and requiring importers to undergo inspections at the time of import (Table 5).

As of September 30, 2010, inspection orders had been applied to 16 products from all exporting countries and 131 products from 33 countries and 1 region. The record of inspection orders (Table 6) shows that a total of 119,490 inspection orders were conducted and, of these, steps were taken for their re-shipment or disposal, etc. based on 148 violations of the Act.

Based on information from overseas on such topics as food-poisoning occurrences and recalls of law-violating food products, the system for monitoring items for importation was enhanced in FY 2010 for issues such as Natamycin in wine from Argentina, and fungal contamination in mineral water from France (Table 7).