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1. If the Commission receives — in particular either under the Community arrangements for the early exchange of information in the event of a radiological emergency, or under the IAEA Convention on Early Notification of a Nuclear Accident of 26 September 1986 — official information on a nuclear accident or on any other case of radiological emergency which is likely to lead to or has led to significant radioactive contamination of food and feed, it shall adopt an implementing Regulation rendering applicable maximum permitted levels to the potentially contaminated food or feed that could be placed on the market. Without prejudice to Article 3(4), the applicable maximum permitted levels set out in such an implementing Regulation shall not exceed those set out in Annexes I, II and III. That implementing Regulation shall be adopted in accordance with the examination procedure referred to in Article 5(2). On duly justified imperative grounds of urgency relating to the circumstances of the nuclear accident or other radiological emergency, the Commission shall adopt an immediately applicable implementing Regulation in accordance with the procedure referred to in Article 5(3).

2. The period of validity of implementing Regulations adopted under paragraph 1 shall be as short as possible. The duration of the first implementing Regulation following a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency shall not exceed 3 months. Implementing Regulations shall be periodically reviewed by the Commission and, if appropriate, amended on the basis of the nature and location of the accident and of the evolution of the level of radioactive contamination effectively measured.

3. When preparing or reviewing implementing Regulations, the Commission shall take into account the basic standards laid down pursuant to Articles 30 and 31 of the Treaty, including the justification principle and the optimisation principle, with the aim of keeping the magnitude of individual doses, the likelihood of exposure and the number of individuals exposed as low as reasonably achievable, taking into account the current state of technical knowledge and economic and societal factors. When reviewing implementing Regulations, the Commission shall consult the group of experts referred to in Article 31 of the Treaty if a nuclear accident or any other case of radiological emergency causes such widespread contamination of food or feed consumed in the Community that the rationale and assumptions underpinning the maximum permitted levels set out in Annexes I, II and III to this Regulation are no longer valid. The Commission may seek the opinion of that group of experts in any other case of contamination of food or feed consumed in the Community.

4. Without prejudice to the health protection objective pursued by this Regulation, the Commission may, by means of implementing Regulations, allow any Member State, at its request and in the light of exceptional circumstances prevailing in that Member State, to derogate temporarily from the maximum permitted levels in respect of specified food or feed consumed on its territory. Those derogations shall be based on scientific evidence and be duly justified by the circumstances, in particular societal factors, prevailing in the Member State concerned.