Question to the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs:

To ask the Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs, what checks his Department takes to ensure that no insects or pesticides are brought into the UK through food imports.

In EU food law, the expectation is that food is not contaminated. Food must be safe and fit for human consumption. This applies to all food placed on the market (i.e. supplied for profit or not) in EU Member States.

Consumers should be provided with information about food which enables them to make safe and informed food choices.

Even where foreign bodies found in food which might not in themselves be harmful to health, including insects or other foreign bodies that should not be in the food, or are not described as being part of the food, the food would still likely be deemed ‘unfit for human consumption.’

Food imported into the EU for placing on the market within the EU must comply with the relevant requirements of food law.

Importers, distributors and retailers of food are under a statutory obligation to comply with maximum residues levels set for pesticides in food. They must put in place appropriate quality controls to ensure this. This requirement is backed up by a substantial UK Government programme of testing for residues in food and drink; results are published on the GOV.UK website.

Controlled plant products are inspected for quarantine pests on a risk basis.