Radioactive substances in food, milk and feed in the Netherlands: yearly bulletin 2023

Within the Netherlands, Wageningen Food Safety Research performs a monitoring program on the presence of natural and artificial radioactivity in the food and feed production chain. This monitoring program is based on several European and Dutch rules and regulations. In 2023 the results of about 2600 gamma analyses and about 300 beta analyses in food and feed products showed no exceeding of the maximal allowed levels. Most samples did not show results above the minimal detectable levels, which indicated the radioactivity concentrations in food and feed products are generally very low. With the analysis results a calculation of the annual yearly ingestion dose as a result of artificial radionuclides present in food products is performed. As a result of new available consumption pattern data for the Dutch population and taking into account the whole daily consumption quantity (instead of only a part of this) the calculated yearly ingestion dose as a result of artificial radionuclides sums up to <0.65 mSv. This dose calculation is relatively high compared to the estimated ingestion dose contribution of natural radionuclides being present in food and food products, being 0.42 mSv. In comparing these two contributions, it should be taken into account that the ingestion dose calculation for artificial radionuclides is mainly based on detection limits of radionuclide concentrations, and not on actual radionuclide concentrations found. Therefore, the ingestion dose calculation for artificial radionuclides may result in an overestimation of this contribution. To be able to perform a more accurate calculation of the total yearly ingestion dose for the Dutch population also the contribution of alpha emitters which are naturally present in food and feed products should be analysed more intensively.