To ask His Majesty's Government what measures they are implementing to (1) assess, and (2) mitigate the risk of, any lead contamination in the UK food chain.
Answered on
6 August 2024
Lead is a naturally occurring contaminant that is present in soil, water and the atmosphere including as a result of past human activities and can be present in food. Whilst there is no safe level of lead, maximum levels for certain foods including cereals and meat are in place which are set based on the ‘as low as reasonably achievable’ (ALARA) principle.
Food business operators are responsible for ensuring that they comply with the established maximum levels. Lead is included in the national monitoring plan for products of animal origin and where noncompliance is found this will be followed up by the relevant local authority for enforcement purposes.
The Food Standards Agency has previously worked with farming groups and industry on best practice advice for farmers on preventing lead poisoning of livestock which includes practical suggestions to reduce animals’ intake of soil that may contain lead which is particularly important in those areas of the country with naturally high levels of lead in the soil.
Lead exposure from food is under constant review to ensure that advice and other measures in place remain protective for all consumers.
Under Part 2A of the Environmental Protection Act 1990, each local authority has a duty to inspect its area to identify and require remediation of contaminated land. A risk-based approach is used to define contaminated land, with regulators required to intervene in cases where the contamination is deemed to present an unacceptable risk to human health and the environment.
Additionally, the Water and Abandoned Metal Mines (WAMM) Programme set up in 2011 between Defra, the Environment Agency and the Coal Authority, investigates and tackles the legacy of historic water pollution from abandoned metal mines in England and to develop schemes to clean up rivers polluted by abandoned metal mines.
The WAMM programme shows Defra is taking metal mine pollution seriously and our legal target under the 2021 Environment Act: to halve the length of rivers polluted by target metals from abandoned metal mines by 2038, against a baseline of around 1,500km (approximately 930 miles), is proportionate to the documented evidence of the problem of which we are aware.