Restrictions on Food From Japan Widen Amid Radiation Contamination Concern
Restrictions on Foods From Japan Widen Amid Radiation
Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
Spinach for sale in a supermarket in Tokyo.
Spinach for sale in a supermarket in Tokyo. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
A shopper looks at milk in a supermarket in Tokyo. Photographer: Haruyoshi Yamaguchi/Bloomberg
Australia and Singapore joined the U.S. and Hong Kong in restricting food imports from Japan as elevated radiation levels were found outside an evacuation radius around the damaged Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear plant.
Singapore suspended imports of milk and milk products, fruit and vegetables, seafood and meat from areas affected by the nuclear power accident, the nation’s Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority said on its website. Australia said it would place a “holding order” on some products from four prefectures.
Stores and restaurants across Asia have dropped Japanese food from shelves and menus as the nation’s government halted spinach shipments and told residents around the stricken nuclear plant not to drink tap water. Japanese Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said yesterday that higher radiation levels had been detected outside a 30-kilometer (19 mile) radius of the plant damaged in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.
Australia was taking action “as a precautionary measure and consistent with approaches internationally,” Food Standards Australia New Zealand said on its website. The move covered milk and milk products, fresh fruit and vegetables, seaweed and seafood, it said.
The agency “remains of the view that the risk of Australian consumers being exposed to radionuclides in food imported from Japan is negligible,” the authority said. “Milk and milk products and fresh produce are not imported into Australia, while imports of seaweed and seafood represent a very small proportion (5.5% and 0.46% respectively) of Australia’s total imports of these products.”
Milk, Seafood
The produce from the affected region would be held at the border indefinitely until food and nuclear regulators decided it was safe to be distributed into the Australian market.
Less than 2 percent of Singapore’s imported seafood comes from Japan, and less than 0.5 percent of imports of other food products come from Japan, the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore said in a March 14 statement.
Thailand will check all fruit and vegetable imports from Japan’s main island, Honshu, before allowing their sale and will randomly screen other products such as fish, Pipat Yingseri, secretary-general of the Thai Food and Drug Administration, told a media conference today. The country hadn’t found any abnormal contamination since checks started in mid-March, he said.
Water Tests
Japan’s Health Ministry yesterday advised against eating leafy vegetables produced near the crippled power plant, located 220 kilometers (135 miles) north of Tokyo. The degree of contamination detected isn’t harmful, Chief Cabinet Secretary Edano said at a Tokyo briefing. Authorities in the city will distribute bottled water to families with infants after tests this week showed that tap water may be unsafe for babies.
Levels of radioactive iodine taken from a sample today had fallen to within safe limits, the Bureau of Waterworks said.
Hong Kong said yesterday said it would bar imports of agricultural products from the prefectures most affected by the quake after finding levels of radioactive iodine in turnip and spinach samples as much as 10 times the level the city allows in food. The U.S. banned milk and fresh produce from the Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi and Gunma prefectures on March 22.
Japanese authorities barred the export of milk and vegetables from the four areas on March 21, the U.S. Food & Drug Administration, or FDA, noted in an alert. Food believed to be from the areas will be detained at the U.S. border unless the importer can verify the products came from other regions of Japan, the FDA said in an e-mailed statement.
European Union
The European Union said yesterday that it has no immediate plans to ban food imports from Japan. New Zealand Ministry of Agriculture spokesman David Crowe said today that the country wasn’t taking action, while continuing to monitor the situation.
Some Shanghai luxury supermarkets halted imports of Japanese fresh food including fish, the China Business News reported, citing managers from the supermarkets. Indonesia will temporarily stop importing fish and other aquaculture products from Japan over radiation concerns, Investor Daily Indonesia reported, citing Maritime and Fisheries Minister Fadel Muhammad.
South Korea’s Food & Drug Administration said it may halt imports of Japanese food in case the risk of “serious” contamination increases. The state-agency said it hasn’t found any radiation damage in the Japanese products so far.
Radiation Dilution
Fish are at lower risk of radioactive contamination than leafy vegetables as radiation is diluted in seawater, said Yasuo Sasaki, senior press counselor at the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries.
“Fishing in the northeastern prefectures of Fukushima, Miyagi and Iwate has been suspended since the quake, lowering the risk that tainted fish will be in the market,” Sasaki said.
Tokyo Electric Power Co. detected cobalt, iodine and cesium in the sea near water outlets from reactors at its stricken nuclear plant in Fukushima north of Tokyo this week.
The magnitude 9.0 earthquake was Japan’s strongest on record and was followed by a tsunami that devastated the northern coastline, killing 9,700 people as of noon in Tokyo, and forcing hundreds of thousands to evacuate. The flood wave crippled the Fukushima nuclear plant, knocking out cooling systems and causing radiation leaks.
To contact the reporter on this story: Wendy Pugh in Melbourne at wpugh@bloomberg.net
To contact the editor responsible for this story: James Poole at jpoole4@bloomberg.net
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