Tokyo govt to test N-safety of 500 food items

The Yomiuri Shimbun

The Tokyo metropolitan government will start checking the radioactivity levels of 500 fresh and processed food items produced in east Japan by randomly testing samples of such foods from retailers, officials said Monday.

The inspections, to be conducted from Tuesday through the end of fiscal 2011, is a response to the Tokyo public's growing concern over food safety since the crisis at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant was triggered by the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

The 500 items will include processed foods that regular households consume almost daily, such as tofu, boiled beans, juice and jam. Fresh food subject to inspection will include meat--except beef, because the metropolitan government is already conducting blanket testing on cows--milk, eggs, vegetables and fish.

Among other food items, the inspections will focus on items regularly consumed by children, according to the officials.

Metropolitan government officials will visit supermarkets and other retailers to seek their cooperation, buying 20 to 30 items per week from stores that will then be checked with handheld geiger counters.

If any of the foodstuffs are found to contain 50 becquerels per kilogram or more of radioactive substances, they will go through additional tests using germanium detectors.

The test results will be displayed on the Web site of the Tokyo metropolitan government, which also will release the names of products found to contain radioactive substances above provisional standards set by the central government.

Local governments currently conduct voluntary tests on the safety of agricultural products produced in their respective districts. However, some products have slipped through the system, such as beef contaminated with radioactive cesium. In addition, almost no processed foods have so far undergone inspection.

"Many consumers are expressing concerns whether the food they buy at retailers is really safe to eat," said an official from the metropolitan government's Social Welfare and Public Health Bureau. "The Tokyo metropolitan government wants to help boost [consumer confidence in] food security by regularly checking various foodstuffs during an intensive period."