#Radioactive Japan: Number of Food Items to Be Tested for Radiation Will Be Reduced by 25%, First Major Revision Since the Start of Nuclear Accident

It looks like the nuclear accident is so behind them in Japan, rat or no rat. Ministry of Health and Labor announced that the radioactivity testing for food items will be scaled down significantly, by exempting 34 items from testing.

That's 25% of food items that have been regularly tested since the start of the Fukushima I Nuclear Power Plant accident.

They have been testing only 132 food items to begin with.

What's puzzling is that certain fruits that have consistently been found with elevated amounts (if not exceeding the safety standard of 100 Bq/kg) of radioactive cesium are going to be exempted - peaches, apples, and pears.

From Kyodo News (3/19/2013):

食品のセシウム検査縮小へ　厚労省

Testing for radioactive cesium in food to be scaled down, Ministry of Health and Labor says

　政府は１９日、自治体が実施している食品の放射性セシウム検査で、葉もの野菜や、果実の一部とイワシなど魚類の一部などを４月以降、原則として重点検査対象から除外すると発表した。厚生労働省によると、対象食品数（品目・類）は１３２から９８に減る。重点検査の大幅見直しは初めて。

On March 19, the national government announced that certain leafy vegetables, fruits, and certain kinds of fish will be exempt from the tests conducted by the municipalities for radioactive cesium, starting April. The number of food items to be tested will be reduced from the current 132 to 98. It is the first time that the radiation test for food has been significantly revised.

　同省は「検査で放射性セシウムが検出されない食品が多くなっているため」としている。

The reason given by the ministry is that radioactive cesium is not detected any more in increasing number of food items.

　具体的には、野菜類ではホウレンソウやレタス、キャベツ、ダイコン、ジャガイモなど、果実ではモモ、リンゴ、ナシなど、魚類ではコウナゴ（イカナゴの稚魚）、イワシ、サバ、ブリなどが除外される。

For example, the items to be excluded from the testing are spinach, lettuce, cabbage, daikon, potatoes and others for the vegetables, peach, apple, pear and others for the fruits, young lancefish, sardine, mackerel, yellowtail and others for the fish.

Well, as you know, peaches, apples, pears and persimmons from Fukushima will be sold to Thailand as "gourmet fruits" for the rich. JETRO just announced that Malaysia will no longer require the radiation test certificates for the food items from Japan. Rich Malaysians will get to eat those "gourmet fruits", too.

Information at the website of Ministry of Health and Labor is as clear as mud. You can't readily tell which vegetables, fruits and fish have been exempted by the Nuclear Disaster Response Headquarters. You have to know exactly what they have been testing (132 items) to know what will be exempt, as the ministry's press release only confirms what are still to be tested.

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