The Minister of Agriculture, Fisheries and Food, Luis Planas, indicated this Tuesday that “there is currently no information” that there are problems with food safety or the consumption of fish or seafood, linked to the contamination of the pellets.
Planas has stated, in the press conference after the Council of Ministers, that he has no news, nor have the regional administrations reported that there is “affect” in the fishing sector due to the pollution generated by the dumping of plastic pellets, which affects to the Galician and Asturian coasts.
In relation to food safety, he specified that the autonomous communities – in this case the Xunta de Galicia – are the responsible authorities and that the Government is “following the issue” with the entities involved.
In this sense, he has referred to the Spanish Agency for Food Safety (Aesan) and the reference centers in Majadahonda (Madrid) and Vigo.
The minister, who has presented the draft Law against Food Waste, has answered questions about the consequences of the contamination of plastic pellets and has referred to the statements of the third vice president of the Government and minister for the Ecological Transition, Teresa Ribera.
“The Government has a position of openness to collaboration, within the rules,” Planas stressed, and referred to the fact that the raising of the alert by the Xunta de Galicia and the activation of “phase 2 of emergency” is “what justifies” the actions of the Spanish Executive.
“The Government’s message is very clear, maximum transparency and collaboration,” stressed Planas, who referred to the importance for the health of the seas and for the fishing sector of the measures that the European Union (EU) and the UN They are working to reduce the presence of plastics in the oceans.
The Galician and Asturian beaches have become news these days due to the arrival of thousands of plastic pellets from one of the six containers lost by the Toconao ship on December 8, some 80 kilometers west of Viana do Castelo, in Portuguese waters. .
