In order to ensure the safety of foods, etc., imported into Japan (hereinafter, “imported foods”), the government established the Imported Foods Monitoring and Guidance Plan for 2016 (hereinafter, “the Plan”) as per the regulations of Article 23, paragraph 1 of the Food Sanitation Act (Act No. 233, 1947; hereinafter, “the Act”), and monitoring and guidance for imported foods is being conducted based upon the Plan.
(The Plan is formulated based on the Guidelines for Monitoring and Guidance for Food Sanitation (Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare Notification No. 301 of 2003) after conducting collection of public comments and risk communication. The plan is published in the Official Gazette as an official report according to the regulations of Article 23, paragraph 3 of the Act.)
This document publishes an outline of the implementation status of the monitoring and guidance for imported foods, conducted in accordance with the plan, for the period from April to September 2016.

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

The number of import notifications made from April through September of 2016 was 1,161,978 [1,134,155], and the weight of notified items was 11,874,000 tons [11,416,000 tons] (Table 1).

　Inspections were carried out on 98,172 items (monitoring inspections on 29,387 items, ordered inspection on 27,641, and independence inspection on 45,285 items, deducting duplicates) [101,922 items (monitoring inspections on 28,539 items, ordered inspection on 31,764 items, and independence inspections on 47,067 items, deducting duplicates)]. Of these, 358 cases [431 cases] were found to be in violation of the Act, and steps were taken for their reshipment, disposal, etc.

　Regarding violations categorized by provision, violations of Article 11 of the Act (compositional standards for food (microbial, agricultural chemical residues and veterinary drug residues) and standards for the use of additives in food, etc.) were the most common in 224 cases, followed by 89 cases in violation of Article 6 (adhesion of hazardous or toxic substances such as aflatoxin), 38 cases in violation of Article 18 (standards for apparatus or containers and packaging), 12 cases in violation of Article 10 (use of undesignated additives), 3 cases in violation of Article 9 (absence of health certificates of meat), and 2 cases in violation of Article 62 (standards for toys) (Table 2).

Monitoring inspection was conducted for 29,387 cases (58,416 cases compared to the planned cumulative total of 95,929 (implementation rate: approx. 61%)), and of which, 72 cases (running total of 76 cases) were confirmed to be in violation of the Act, and steps were taken for their recalls, etc. (Table 3). For imported foods that were found to be in violation of the Act by monitoring inspection, the inspection rate to 30% as necessary, to identify probable of violations (Table 4). Additionally, for imported foods that are considered to have a high probability of violating the Act, inspections were strengthened by making them subject of ordered inspections (Table 5).

　As of September 30, 2016, 17 items from all exporting countries and 72 items from 34 countries and 1 region were made subject to ordered inspection, and inspection was carried out for 27,641 cases (running total of 41,742 cases). Of these, violation of the Act was found in 111 cases (running total of 111 cases), and steps were taken for their reshipment or disposal, etc. (Table 6).

　As an emergency measures based on information from overseas, etc., reshipment, etc., was carried out for frozen vegetables and fruits potentially contaminated with Listeria monocytogenes from the USA. (Table 7).