Tokyo Food Safety Information Center » Good things to know » Pesticide residue » Agricultural product monitoring and Tokyo Metropolitan Government initiatives
Agricultural product monitoring and Tokyo Metropolitan Government initiative
Monitoring of imported agricultural products
A Notification of Importation of Food, Etc. must be submitted to a quarantine station when importing agricultural products. At quarantine stations, this document is first inspected and if there are no issues, permission is granted for importation. However, if a possibility of a violation discovered or if a problem is found regarding the hygienic condition of the food, the Minister of Health, Labour and Welfare orders the quarantine station to conduct an inspection of the food (called an “Order for Inspection”). When an Order for Inspection is issued, the importer must have the relevant food inspected by a designated inspection organization and only if the food passes this inspection may the food be brought into the country.
In addition, inspection items are determined based on information concerning the country of export and other factors and a portion of foods being imported may be systematically inspected. This is called a monitoring inspection. In the case of a monitoring inspection, the imported foods may already be in the Japan at the time the inspection results are acquiring; however, in the event the inspected foods exceed permitted inspection values, measures will be taken such as the collection and disposal of the food for violating food limits.
Domestic monitoring
Local governments across the country conduct monitoring and inspection of domestically produced agricultural products and other agricultural products distributed throughout the nation.
In the event pesticides are found to exceed set limits, the sale of such products is halted as productions violating the Food Hygiene Act and any products released on the market are recalled. In addition, in the event pesticides are found to exceed registration limits, information to this effect is provided to the local government with jurisdiction over the production area.
Tokyo Metropolitan Government initiatives
The Tokyo Metropolitan Government engages in pesticide residue inspections on domestic and imported agricultural products released in Tokyo at the Tokyo Metropolitan Institute of Public Health and the Tokyo Metropolitan Wholesale Market Sanitation Inspection Station.
