Sheep farms may see controls lifted

Restrictions on hundreds of Welsh sheep farms – including some on the north Powys border – dating back to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant disaster could soon be lifted.

A consultation has been launched on whether to remove restrictions on 334 north Wales farms affected since 1986. The Food Standards Agency says recent tests have shown that the risk from radioactivity is now very low.

Nearly 10,000 UK farms were affected, but restrictions only remain in Wales and on eight farms in Cumbria.

A small number of farms on the Powys border in north Wales were affected by the restrictions. Contamination was found on some UK upland areas after a radioactive plume blew across Europe in the aftermath of the explosion at the Ukrainian plant.

The FSA says it wants the views of farmers. Restrictions were placed on farms to prevent sheep with unacceptable levels of radioactivity – predominantly radiocaesium – from entering the food chain.

The FSA said safety concerns 'are now very low', and controls were lifted in Northern Ireland in 2000 and in Scotland in 2010.

A spokesman for the FSA said: "The control measures are now no longer considered proportionate to the very low food safety risk and are no longer required to comply with European food safety law."

Restrictions will remain in place during the consultation, which closes on February 8, 2012.

By Andrew Morris