| No nuclear nonsense in Godzone |
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Japan is still reeling from a major earthquake, a devastating tsunami and a nuclear crisis. And just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, the bad news just keep coming, albeit in small increments.
Alarming food safety issues have now emerged in Japan. Just a few weeks after the nuclear accident in Fukushima, the World Health Organization (WHO) reported that the detection of radiation in food was a more serious problem than it had first expected, and that cases of contaminated vegetables, milk and water are already stoking regional anxieties despite Japanese officials' assurances the contamination levels are not dangerous. While there is no hard evidence that contaminated product is being exported, I think it's fair to assume that some produce may have easily got out of the ‘contamination zone’. How this zone can be defined exactly, after radioactive traces have been detected in the Pacific Ocean, is another matter for concern. High levels of iodine-131 and caesium-137 were measured close to the effluent discharge points of the Fukushima nuclear plant, reports the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA). Public fear of radiation is running deep, and anxiety has spread as far as the Pacific-facing side of the United States. Although health officials said (at time of writing) that radiation levels were not alarming, within just two weeks of the earthquake and tsunami damaging the nuclear plant radioactive traces exceeding national safety standards were found in milk from a farm about 30km from the plant and in spinach grown in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture. The Prime Minister has ordered food business operators not to distribute, for the time being, any fresh raw milk and parsley in Ibaraki prefecture. Small levels of radioactive iodine have also been found in tap water in Tokyo, one of the world's largest cities about 240km south of the nuclear plant. Consumers are now buying bottled water en masse, leaving bare shelves in many stores. The second IAEA monitoring team has now arrived in Japan. The two teams in Japan will continue to work closely with the Japanese authorities. Monitoring will be undertaken in the areas of Fukushima and Tokyo. Measurements will be taken to determine more precisely the actual composition of the radionuclides that have been deposited. The discovery of contaminated food since the disaster is likely to heighten scrutiny of Japanese food exports, especially in Asia, its biggest market. The potential for consumer panic is high. New Zealand’s nuclear-free status and the idea of Country of Origin labelling are starting to look very sensible indeed. Tamara Rubanowski Editor, FMCG 
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