THE results of tests to establish the amount of PFAS in Jersey potatoes, milk, seafood and other local produce should reassure Islanders that levels of the manmade chemical linked to cancer are low, according to the Environment Minister.
This week, an independent scientific panel advising the government on its response to contamination by ‘forever chemicals’ published the results of a four-month testing programme.
The three-member panel also released its latest report on how the government should act – this one focusing on PFAS in food and soil.
The testing of food and soil around the Island shows that levels of PFAS are, on the whole, low, the government said.
Environment Minister Steve Luce said: “These test results are very reassuring. They show our food supply is safe and that PFAS levels in our agricultural produce are very low – and in many cases undetectable.
“The soil tests show that PFAS has not spread beyond the known plume area around the airport, and that Jersey does not have a wider PFAS issue.
“I’m grateful to the independent scientific panel for their ongoing work to help us better understand the issue of PFAS in Jersey and what we can do to tackle it.
“I will study their recommendations carefully and respond in February 2026.”
Earlier this year, members of the Environment Department’s regulation team took more than 60 samples of various foodstuffs – including Jersey Royals, tomatoes, milk, eggs, strawberries, beef, pork, oysters, crab and scallops – for evidence of PFAS, a man-made chemical that is now ubiquitous, including – in trace amounts – in drinking water.
The newly published test results are accompanied by the PFAS panel’s next interim report, which reviews the global scientific consensus on what the weekly tolerable intake of PFAS in food and water should be.
Matching the test results with the panel’s global standards reveals that only one field tested had PFAS in soil that exceeded a level which the experts believe would warrant remediation. This field is the ‘plume’ area and is understood to be close to the Airport fire training ground – the main source of contamination in Jersey.
When it comes to food, the government said that some level of PFAS should be expected in food in every country worldwide. It added that many samples it had taken were below detectable levels of PFAS, with the overwhelming majority found to have PFAS levels “well below relevant EU maximum levels”.
Breaking down the results into individual food types, the results showed that:
- Jersey Royal and maincrop potatoes were all below the EU indicative level for concern, with only one exception from the plume area which tested slightly higher, and 50% of samples across the Island were below detectable levels completely.
- Jersey milk across the range was measured below detectable levels. Although a single sample of whole milk showed a slightly elevated level, the government said that resampling suggested this was an anomaly, as the resamples were all below detectable levels.
- Jersey eggs all contained levels less than 50% of the EU maximum permitted level.
- Jersey fish and seafood, including oysters, crab, lobster, scallops and black bream results were all well below the EU maximum levels, with the highest being just 20% of the EU maximum level.
- Jersey beef and pork meat samples were well below the EU maximum level, the highest of which was slightly higher than 10% of the EU maximum level. Offal, in all but one case, was well below the EU maximum levels. The exception was pork liver, which was found to contain high levels which exceeded the EU maximum level.
The scientific panel’s recommendations to the government include that it should consider new methods of dealing with biosolids, which are a product of sewage treatment and spread in fields as fertiliser.
