Food Safety in Japan: One Year after the Nuclear Disaster

http://www.japanfocus.org/-Martin_J_-Frid/3722

Other foods were also tested, and it became clear that crops were seriously contaminated in certain areas around the nuclear reactors that had been damaged.

The government set a provisional regulation limit of 500 Bq/kg and mandated that food that had levels below the limits could be sold. 

While there was criticism2 that the limits were too high, that is, that they allowed too much contamination, the key was that they were provisional. New, much stricter limits of 100 Bq/kg were announced in December, and will be implemented from April 1, 20123.

Starting with Fukushima prefecture, 19,929 food items had been measured as of March 9, 2012. Out of these, only 683 were found to be contaminated at levels exceeding the provisional limits (500 Bq/kg). That includes 302 types of vegetables (including spinach and bamboo shoots), 206 fishery products, 18 milk products (raw milk) 151 meat products (including 84 cases of boar meat and 59 cases of beef).

For all the losses imposed by the 3.11 disaster, an extraordinary fact is that Japan enjoys high levels of food safety, and foods from Japan can continue to be appreciated at home and abroad, after continued careful testing.

후쿠시마 원전사고 이후, 일본의 식품에 대한 안전도 및 신뢰도는 오히려 높아지고 있다는 다소 의아스런 내용이다. 이유인즉, 국민의 불신이 높아지다 보니 세슘, 요오드 기준치를 대폭 낮추게 되었는데 이는 다른 국가들에 비해서 훨씬 안전한 기준이 되었다는 것이다.