New Delhi, April 05: The government today suspended import of food items from Japan, hit by a nuclear disaster, for three months or till such time as the radiation hazard in that country has subsided to acceptable limits.
The decision to suspend the imports was taken at a meeting held under the chairmanship of P I Suvrathan, Chairperson Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
“Import of food articles coming from Japan stand suspended with immediate effect for a period of three months or till such time as credible information is available that the radiation hazard has subsided to acceptable limits,” a statement issued by the Health Ministry said.
However, the Ministry said “weekly reviews will be carried out by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI).
The meeting was called by FSSAI to review the situation arising out of radioactive incidents in nuclear power plants in Japan and possible contamination of Japanese food being imported into India.
After detailed discussions, it was concluded that since the radiation is spreading or expanding horizontally in other parts of Japan, it may result in further radioactive contamination in the supply chain of food exports from Japan.
Representatives and experts from Board of Radiation and Isotope Technology (BRIT), Bhabha Atomic Research Centre (BARC), Atomic Energy Regulatory Board (AERB), Indian Institute of Toxicology Research (IITR), Central Board of Excise and Customs (CBEC) and Shriram Institute for Industrial Research participated in the meeting.
Earlier this month, the government had ordered that food originating from Japan be tested for radiation.
The Department of Revenue, Government of India, has also been requested to advise all the customs points in the country, where imported food is cleared, to test samples on similar lines.
Radioactive iodine in seawater near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant tested five million times the legal limit, the facility’s operator said today, as authorities for the first time imposed radiation safety standards for fish in the tsunami-hit region.
The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO), which had last week said toxic water was leaking from a cracked concrete pit near the No.2 reactor, said the seawater samples taken on Saturday last contained 300,000 becquerels of iodine 131 per cubic cm or 7.5 million times the legal limit, which dropped yesterday to 5 million times than usual.
The samples taken yesterday also contained cesium 137, which was 1.1 million times the legal limit, more than three weeks after the monster magnitude-9 quake and tsunami hit Japan’s northeast leaving nearly 30,000 people dead or unaccounted for.