From: Food Standards Agency Date: 9 January 2004 "PUBLICATION IN SCIENCE JOURNAL - GLOBAL ASSESSMENT OF ORGANIC CONTAMINANTS IN FARMED SALMON Issue: Timing: Presentational: Recommendation: Background The publication in the journal Science of a paper on contamination of salmon. Immediate. But for information only. The Journal lifted it's embargo on the information at 7 p.m. yesterday The Agency has issued a statement and has given a number of media interviews on the issue since the embargo was lifted. That you note the Food Standards Agency's advice that there is no need to change the dietary advice on the consumption of salmon as a result of this publication. 1. The paper to be published in Science yesterday claims that: «Farmed salmon have significantly higher contaminant burdens than wild salmon; * Contaminant levels are highest in Scottish salmon; and * For some sources of salmon consumption should be restricted to less than haifa meal per month2 The levels of dioxins reported in the survey were between 2.5 and 3 pg WHO-TEQ/g. These are equivalent to results from previous surveys of UK salmon reported in 1999. The study looked at European and North American salmon. The study did not compare levels in European farmed salmon with wild salmon caught in Europe._In_a_previous_small-scale_study there were no discernible __ differences in dioxin levels in farmed and wild salmon. The recommendation in the paper to limit consumption to less than half a portion per month was based on a draft risk assessment by the US EPA. The UK Committee on Carcinogenicity rejected this approach in 2001. Intakes of dioxins at the levels reported in the article are within safety levels set by the WHO's expert committee and by the EC Scientific Committee for Food in 2001. The Committee on Toxicity also endorsed these levels in 2001 The Agency has issued a statement, copy attached at Annex A Recommendation recommend you note the publication of the journal Science of a paper on contamination of salmon. the Food Standards Agency's conclusion that there is no need to change dietary advice on salmon consumption as a result of this publication. ce. (by e-mail only)PSA statement on ‘Science’ journal article on contaminants in salmon Embargoed to 7pm, 8" January 2004 FSA Response to Salmon study published in Science magazine The levels of dioxins and PCBs found in this study are in line with those that have previously been found by the FSA (j) and are within up to date safety levels set by the World Health Organisation (ii) and the European Commission. This study does not raise any new food safety concems. This applies to all the salmon: farmed as well as wild, Scottish as well as imported. FSA chairman said: “This study shows that the levels of dioxins and PCBs in salmon are within internationally recognised safety limits and confirms previous studies by the FSA. Our advice is that people should consume at least two portions of fish a week - one of which should be oily like salmon. There is good evidence that eating oily fish reduces, the risk of death from recurrent heart attacks and that there is a similar effect in relation to first heart attacks. “ Although dioxin levels have decreased dramatically over the past two decades we recognise that they remain a consumer concern, We advise that the known benefits of cating one portion of oily fish outweigh any possible risks. Last year we asked a group of experts to advise on the balance of risks and benefits of eating more than this regularly over a lifetime.” On average people in the UK eat one-quarter of a portion of oily fish a week. Notes to editors i) Food Surveillance Information Sheet 184 August 1999 ii) Levels set by the WHO/FAO (Food and Agriculture Organisation) Joint Expert Committee on Food Additives in 2001 iii) Levels of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in food fell by around SO per cent between 1997 and 2001: source: the 2001 UK Total Diet Study of dioxins and dioxin-like PCBs in food, published July 2003.