Radioactivity in Food and the Environment (RIFE) 2006

Wednesday 14 November 2007

RIFE 12 is the fifth joint annual report combining the results of the radiological monitoring programmes of the Food Standards Agency (FSA), the Environment Agency, the Scottish Environment Protection Agency and the Environment and Heritage Services of Northern Ireland. The RIFE 12 report includes data for samples collected in 2006.

The main purposes of the FSA's monitoring programme are to ensure that authorised discharges of radioactivity do not result in unacceptable doses to people through their diet and to check that levels of radioactivity in food are low.

The RIFE report is the only independent report of radioactivity in food covering the whole of the UK. The data are mainly used to calculate the potential dose to consumers eating locally grown food around the UK's nuclear sites. Other dose assessments are included for consumers in areas well away from nuclear sites where sources of naturally occurring radiation are known to contribute to the radioactivity in the general diet.

The report contains sections on radiological dose assessment methods, recently published surveys and research, current legislation and updates on UK, European Union (EU) and international commitments pertinent to the radiological protection area.

As in previous years, data from surveys of consumers' diets have been used to calculate doses from 'terrestrial' and 'aquatic' food pathways separately. The report uses methodology recommended by the National Dose Assessment Working Group to calculate 'total' doses to consumers from all exposure pathways. The doses calculated by this methodology lead to a more reliable assessment of total dose to members of the public from discharges to the environment. RIFE 12 includes the dose estimates using this methodology for consumers around 21 sites, and it is hoped that by the end of 2008 (when necessary surveys of dietary habits have been completed) this methodology will be used to calculate total doses for consumers around all nuclear sites.

The report shows that in 2006, consumers' exposure to artificially produced radioactivity via the food chain (for aquatic, terrestrial and total dose pathways) remained below the EU annual dose limit to members of the public of 1 millisievert for all artificial sources of radiation.