At the international level, there has been some progress: 27 countries of the 54 that imposed restrictions on food from Fukushima after 2011 have now lifted those bans
The pumpkin is diced, the chicken carved and the eggs beaten into an omelette, but the people preparing the food are not chefs – they are scientists testing produce from Japan’s Fukushima region.
Seven years after the March 2011 nuclear disaster caused by a devastating tsunami, rigorous testing shows no radioactive threat from Fukushima’s produce, officials and experts say. But local producers say they still face crippling suspicion from consumers.
More than 205,000 food items have been tested at the Fukushima Agricultural Technology Centre since March 2011, with Japan setting a standard of no more than 100 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram (Bq/kg).
The European Union, by comparison, sets that level at 1,250 Bq/kg and the US at 1,200.
In the last year, the centre says no cultivated produce or farm-reared livestock has exceeded the government’s limit.
In all just nine samples out of tens of thousands were over the limit: eight from fish bred in inland ponds, and one a sample of wild mushrooms.
Each day, more than 150 samples are prepared, coded, weighed, and then passed through a “germanium semiconductor detector”. Rice undergoes screening elsewhere.
While radiation affected several regions which have their own testing processes, Fukushima’s programme is the most systematic, testament to the particularly severe reputational damage it suffered.
In the wake of the nuclear disaster, a wide-scale decontamination programme has been carried out in Fukushima.
It can’t be done in forests, where thick tree growth makes it impractical. But elsewhere topsoil has been removed, trees washed down and potassium sprinkled to reduce caesium uptake. But the testing process is the cornerstone of efforts to win consumer trust.
“Some people are still worried, in Japan and abroad, so we want to continue to explain to people in other prefectures and in foreign countries that our products are safe,” said Kenji Kusano, an official at the testing centre.
