M&S to keep selling radioactive fish

SUPERMARKET giants Marks & Spencer yesterday said it would continue to stock salmon found to have very low levels of radioactive waste in their Irish stores.

Experts here said the waste from the controversial Sellafield nuclear processing plant posed no risk to public health.

But the Consumers Association of Ireland called for better testing of such fish products before they were put on shelves, saying that no amount of radioactive waste was acceptable.

“There is concern because this was not expected. It gives rise to the need for improved testing before products are put on the market. That falls to producers and both the British and Irish governments,” said chief executive Dermott Jewell.

“Consumers would expect there to be no level of radioactive waste in their food. That’s only reasonable.”

Mr Jewell was responding to research carried out by Southampton University. It found very low levels of radioactive material Technetium-99 in packets of farmed salmon from Scotland.

The packets were found in six leading British supermarkets, including Tesco and Marks & Spencer, which have Irish chains.

A spokesman for Tesco Ireland said they only stocked Irish salmon in their stores here.

A spokeswoman for Marks & Spencer said they did stock the Scottish salmon in their stores in Dublin and Cork, but stressed there was no cause for concern.

“The levels found do not pose a risk to consumers. We carried out our own tests and there is no detectable levels of tc-99. There is no reason to remove them.”

A spokesman for the Irish Radiological Protection Institute said the levels found were extremely low and that technetium-99 does not build up in fish.

He said that samples carried out by the RPII showed very low levels of the material in the Irish Sea.

“The levels are not of any concern to health,” he said.

Alan Reilly of the Food Safety Authority also said the levels were extremely low and said they had a working relationship with the RPII to monitor the area.

“There is no reason on the basis of this report for Irish consumers to decrease their consumption of seafood.”

Environment Minister Martin Cullen yesterday said: “While the RPII view is that the doses received by the Irish public through the consumption of seafood do not constitute a significant health risk, the fact that such radioactive discharges to the Irish Sea are continuing is a matter of serious concern to the Irish Government.”