健康・医療Contaminants in Foods

 MHLW conducts surveys on levels of contaminants in foods distributed in Japan. When the results indicate the need of control, MHLW regulates contaminants by setting standards based on Article 11 of the Food Sanitation Act.
 When new regulations are set for contaminants, Codex standards are adopted as a general priority if relevent Codex standards exist for specific foods. When MHLW cannnot adopt Codex standards in light of actual conditions of food production in Japan, MHLW promotes measures to mitigate the contaminants or set guideline levels based on ALARA principle*.
 MHLW conducts surveys on the concentrations of contaminants contained in foods and the levels of intake by consumers, to utilize them as basic data for risk reduction measures.

* ALARA - "As low as reasonably achievable". Basic concept for measures for food contaminants.