Japan Expands Rice Ban
December 8th, 2011Via: Bloomberg:
Japan will extend a ban on rice shipments from a third city in Fukushima prefecture after local authorities found more tainted grain, deepening food-safety concerns nine months after a nuclear disaster.
The ban will likely cover the Shibukawa area of Nihonmatsu City, about 55 kilometers (34 miles) from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, as rice samples from the area contained 780 becquerels per kilogram of radioactive cesium, said Shinji Uchida at the grain division of the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries. The maximum allowed by the government for human consumption is 500 becquerels.
The discovery came after authorities increased rice testing for cesium after tainted supplies were found in Fukushima City and Date City. Some of the contaminated grain was sold to local buyers after Fukushima Governor Yuhei Sato said in October that rice produced in the prefecture was safe to eat.
