Fukushima radiation fallout poses growing threat to Japan food chain

RADIATION fallout from the wrecked Fukushima nuclear plant poses a growing threat to Japan’s food chain as unsafe levels of cesium found in beef on supermarket shelves were also detected in more vegetables and the ocean.

More than 2,600 cattle have been contaminated, Kyodo News reported on July 23, after the Miyagi local government said 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed hay containing radioactive caesium before being shipped to meat markets.

Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano has said officials didn’t foresee that farmers might ship contaminated hay to cattle ranchers. That highlights the government’s inability to think ahead and to act, said Mariko Sano, secretary general for Shufuren, a housewives organisation in Tokyo.

“The government is so slow to move,” Sano said. “They’ve done little to ensure food safety.”

On July 22, Aeon Co., Japan’s biggest supermarket chain, said 1,614 kilogrammes (3,558 pounds) of beef from cattle fed contaminated feed had been unknowingly sold at stores in Tokyo and nine other prefectures. Supermarkets started testing beef after the Tokyo Metropolitan Government found cesium in slaughtered cattle this month.

As much as 2,300 becquerels of cesium a kilogramme was detected in the contaminated beef, according to a July 18 statement from the health ministry. The government limit is 500 becquerels.

Seafood is another concern after cesium-134 in seawater near the Fukushima plant climbed to levels 30 times the allowed safety standards last week.