Fukushima rice given all-clear after radiation tests

Misaka Food was also getting clean certificate by govt and was selling contaminated RICE to the people. Fukushima Rice Clearance was anticipated by most of JT readers...now its all upto the consumers.

Plutonium is found outside of the no-go zone, hot spots in Tokyo, and this rice is ok to eat? Do they actually want to reduce the population?

@ goinggoinggone

No, but they really, really want to sell that rice!

No, but they really, really want to sell that rice!

Laughing so hard I'm crying.

No 39. We won't be drafted in for this or any other food safety drives. Hvae you noticed how many 'food corners' are popping up on NHK news? Dear me. Eat the seas bounty, eat the rice, eat everything, it's SO nice!

When this headline comes sandwiched between "hotspot found in Setagaya" and "strontium found on Yokohama rooftop" - Im sorry, but I find it very hard to believe.

Without reading the article. I will NEVER buy Fukushima rice.

You probably will, but you won't realise you are. Just like all the other food.

Zichi, your numbers are incorrect. The US number is 170 becquerels per kg. Here's the URL for the CDC page:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=23&po=12

In Ukraine, where they have actual, sad experience with this stuff, the permissible number is 40 becquerels per kg. In Belaurus the limit for vegetables is 37 for children, 100 for adults.

The EU number of 600 is much higher than many national numbers for EU countries, meaning that certain foods cannot legally be sold in many places.

And this entire discussion is only about Cesium. There are other harmful radionuclides out there that nobody is measuring (on purpose).

This rice will mixed into a blend and sold in bento shops, donburi joints and shipped to pakistan as foreign aid.

There is no traceback on fruit & veges and rice. It's very easy to relabel - I'm sure it's happening.

This week my supermarket has super discounted Nagano vegies...

But a look at a cesium map shows clearly that there are high levels of cesium in parts of Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba and places in Fukushima where it's much lower. What guarantee is there that food testing positive for cesium will be taken out of the foodchain?

The farming lobby here is so powerful, they have to be looked after - even at the potential health risk of kids. Yep, the same mob that violently opposes the free-trade talks so they can continue selling hugely overpriced, inefficiently grown - and now dangerous produce.

The government in Japan is allowing depopulation of Japan to begin-yes we are being included in that number too.

They better be separating and labelling. Most likely, though, they'll be mixing it in. Anyway, people, if you notice a certain bag of rice a lot cheaper than others, check where it's from (and if it glows!).

The new rice catch phrase is: we put the 光 in 光 rice!

Congratulations BrakuminDes!!!

Finally, you have redefined what "Yakuza" really look like today. I've always known this though (I brag). They are not sporting punch perms or Zoot suits. No, the real yakuza in this country wear suits and shiny little buttons on the their lapels. They lay quiet behind legitimate banks and lawyers. They are so conniving and furtive you'd never know they even existed.

Just as a drug dealer would sell drugs to child, they will also sell this contaminated rice. They'll tell you it's safe too. They'll call cases of detection remote at best. They use language to it's perfection, offering up the perfect euphemisms in order to manipulate the outlook on the situation. Hot zone = Hot spot. They say hot spot cause everyone has a mental image of how big a spot is. Hot zone drums up "Follow-Up Questions" like How big is it? How wide? Is it horizontal or vertical? Is it airborne?

Those deep pockets are smart. They've got to get society to eat it so they can redefine what is normal radiation exposure.

These lawyers disgust me. A funny thought came to mind. Deep Pocket lawyers passed the BAR only to lower it by contaminating a whole nation in order to save their bosses a buck.

Buyer beware, read the small print.

Those people who are excited about this dream of becoming X-Men, mutants. Yeah, nuclear radiation will do that to you. Just hope the cancer cells don't overreact.

Still ain't gonna eat it. I prefer foreign rice (for taste and safety). There are better ways to support the community than eat contaminated food.

"The highest level was 470 becquerels per kilogram in Nihonmatsu. The prefectural government will buy that rice for research purposes"

I guess in Japan "research purposes" really means "given to school lunch centers and served to children"

Skeptical and proud. Not to sound like a "truther" but can we trust the system? Until now there has been no reason to say "yes" to this. Why should we start now?

Parents out there, demand your kids' schools use nothing from these areas. It is our right to refuse these products regardless of anything. Be aware of the "国産" mark on packages at grocery stores. This does not specify where the product is from. It simply states it is domestic.

Happy to say schools in my area are refusing these products. No thanks to the teachers or government, but more to parents standing up and demanding information.

Nope! No cesium in this rice folks it was checked twice! What? You have a question….. Plutonium? .. Strontium? …….. No we did not check those yet…. But I can assure you the rice is safe… I’m sure someone will check for the other stuff…..now move along folks and try to stick to the script.

The radioactive blend mix

Back in April MAFF (the Ministry of Farms and Fisheries) sent out a directive to supermarkets,convenience stores, drugstores etc etc saying that because perishables from the disaster zone would be discriminated against, it would be best if the labeling of food origins could be kept at a bare minimum. http://www.maff.go.jp/j/press/soushoku/ryutu/pdf/110406-01.pdf

Wow, that's not what your link says at all. What it does say is that from 21st March foodstuffs that had been labelled according to the prefecture in which they were produced can from the 4th April be labelled according to the town or local area in which they were produced. It specifically mentions leafy vegetables grown in two towns and a city in Chiba that were not allowed on the market while stuff from the rest of Chiba was allowed. 消費者が科学的・客観的な根拠に基づいて適切に対処していただけるよう、野菜等の販売時における産地名の掲示等について、御配慮をお願いいたします - In order to give the consumer scientific, objective grounds on which to deal with the situation, due care should be taken in indicating the origin of vegetables offered for sale. - ie, indicate the town or area, not the prefecture. More detailed labelling, not the bare minimum.

I am sure there will be long queues of eager customers who can't wait to eat this safe rice from Fukushima. Ha, ha, ha, ha!!!

*Zichi, your numbers are incorrect. The US number is 170 becquerels per kg. Here's the URL for the CDC page:

http://www.atsdr.cdc.gov/csem/csem.asp?csem=23&po=12*

170 becquerels per kg is for Iodine. 1200 becquerels per kg is for Cesium

zichi -

In Japan 500 becquerels per kilogram. In Europe, the accepted level is 600 becquerels per kilogram. In America it's 1200 becquerels per kilogram, and the international standard is 1000 becquerels per kilogram.

And...these are limits supposedly based on the Linear No-Threshold model, a hypothesis that states that ANY radiation causes damage.

If we try to say that below 500bq/kg is somehow 'safe' then we are wrong.

To the Fukushima prefectural government -I want a second opinion. Back it up with third party data.

Fukushima Gov Yuhei Sato said that he was relieved over the results of the checks but said the big challenge now was to convince consumers nationwide that Fukushima rice is safe.

Oh l believe you its safe because the government has been so honest and upfront since this all began. NOT!!!!

Could some1 provide info on Brand, naming, picture etc. so we'd avoid it. Thanks.

Send the rice to the politicians, top bureaucrats, and TEPCO executives. We can kill two birds with one stone.

Not really possible as the rice comes from many farmers, and that includes various strains. Most rice grains aren't labelled till they hit a whole-seller/packer as most farms are rather small.

So either trust the label on the package(myself won't buy any rice harvested this year and we increased our thai-rice usage).

Said that of course a major mis-labeling scheme like that would be on the levels of the Illuminati, etc which can control all levels of a goverment/society.

In the end up to you who you trust and who you don't.

It specifically mentions leafy vegetables grown in two towns and a city in Chiba that were not allowed on the market while stuff from the rest of Chiba was allowed.

I understand the discrimination that may occur against an entire ken when only part of it is affected - Tochigi and Gunma, and Chiba actually are good examples.

But expecting consumers to know which individual towns are affected, whilst also removing the name of the ken in favour of putting just the name of the town - this seems to be more misleading than anything to me. It doesnt seem to be providing the consumer with scientific, objective grounds so much as removing a critical piece of information that people without intimate geographical knowledge of the area will need.

Here's how it's done.

One sample reads 600 bq/kg (oh oh that's over) Next sample reads 300 bq/kg (whew that's clear)

Mix the two samples together, now the whole lot is 450 bq/kg.

All clear and safe to eat.

The same was probably done with milk and other homogenous commodities.

Oops...thanks zichi and Heda_Madness. My mistake!

Nicky, I don't think there was any suggestion of removing or hiding the name of the prefecture to leave people guessing where such-and-such a town was; the point was to specify where in the prefecture the food was produced, as opposed to painting the whole of the prefecture with the same brush. To give more information, not less.

For example I would say No Thank you to peaches labelled simply 'Produce of Fukushima-ken', but if they were labelled 'Produce of Town A at the Western Edge of Fukushima-ken', I might buy them.

The current trend to label everything with a ubiquitous 'kokusan' goes in the opposite direction, of course. Nowadays I'm very wary of 'kokusan'.

yum, yum. Five times the world price, and no radiation, according to the prefectural government. Who could want more?

zichi - Then there is no point to be discussing limits, as if they are an indicator of safety. However, people get the impression that they are safety limits. That is not the case nor the intention of the LNT model.

500bq/kg is NOT the safety cut-off, people!

Well now we've got hotspots showing up over/ around Tokyo, Fukushima area must be clean, right? It's all blown/ fallen in the rain,right? And what's a wee dash of Cesium between friends. In a year or so, it'll be rite of passage in Japan. Nice to have a bit of good news sandwiched in between the bad. Gives me such hope......

To take contamination levels and classify a certain level as so many becquerels per kg of produce is safe or dangerous, could have a scientific basis for certain segments of the population. However,in the case of consumers being children and pregnant mothers ie the high risk cases, then it is a different matter. Also, the elevated background levels and the internal food contamination together will cause effects in the population as never before seen or documented.

The nuclear power stations are still emitting radiation into the environment and will continue to do so until covered properly or the molten cores are removed from beneath the earth.

Being told this situation is safe has no basis in fact.

Time to bring the geiger counter to the supermarket

Here's how it's done. One sample reads 600 bq/kg (oh oh that's over) Next sample reads 300 bq/kg (whew that's clear) Mix the two samples together, now the whole lot is 450 bq/kg. All clear and safe to eat. The same was probably done with milk and other homogenous commodities.

That is exactly right!

That is exactly right!

Any actual proof of that happening? Sorry me and others are getting tired of the made up stuff/claims on here, hearsay, etc. You make a statement, pls, back it up with sources. People deal in facts not fantasies/hearsays/etc.

Those same posters claim the goverment is deceiving people yet no verifications to their own statements. So who should we trust?? Goverment non reliable, online posters don't verify and we don't know who they are nor their qualifications not their equipment's.

Never trust any source till verified by outside, impartial parties.

It's ME - no proof (YET!!) but I would not be the first time for the Japanese farmers and food processors to cheat on the customers. Wanna bet that we'll hear scandals about this in notime?

Its Me, if YOU want to eat Fukushima rice, if you think that after the major leak of radiation into the ground, water and atmosphere, that it is even vaguely possible that this rice is safe to eat, then please go ahead. Im sure its very yummy, which after all is what really matters here, right?

But if you are trying to tell me and others here who are deeply suspicious, and rightly so, that we are being somehow unfair or "fear mongering", or not supportive enough of Japan, really, you have no right to do that at all.

ebisen.

Not saying no-one cheats here(of course they do) as they do anywhere else.

Any better than your or my country, honestly doubt it as I read the local news from many countries and thus know how much locals news and worldwide ones differ. Goes way beyond food stuff, into crime, etc, etc.

Example: My hometown had a sniper that targeted 35+ people with an air-rifle over a few weeks, turned out to be 2 teens shooting from their mom's car. None died but many injuries Made your news?

Ditto for many Food-recalls, etc.

goinggoingone.

If you read my posts you would know where I stand.

And who are you and others to tell me what I should belief? The right cuts both ways. Nuff said.

@It'sME

1.Take a look at today's JapanToday for a reality update.......

itsme

I am pretty sure that there was a case of milk that was contaminated was purposely mixed to water it down, this came out in late Mar or April, north of Fukumshima I believe.

Japan just has too many cases of false labelling for anyone to think its not happening some where, time & time again some have been caught & will so again & again etc etc

How about all the pro nuclear energy people eating the Fukushima rice first?

I'll eat it. I'd far rather eat rice which has been tested and is within the limit than say Gunma rice, or market garden vegetables from Setagaya-ku etc...

In the article it states that the water from the paddies was checked for radiation...........

As people do not consume paddy water it is a shame that the actual rice wasn't checked eh?

How about testing the soil at least?

Radioactive elements are heavy and will be in the soil of any paddy won't they waiting to be absorbed by the roots of the plant?

Although we hear how 'safe' it is to ingest radioactive food all the time in Japan this is not the consensus of outside scientists

from the Mainichi..........

"Vladimir Babenko, deputy director of the Belrad Institute of Radiation Safety in the former Soviet republic, told a press conference in Tokyo that he cannot understand the thresholds designated by the Japanese government for food and beverage products, saying they are much higher than Belarusian standards."

If I had to ask an expert it would most likely be one from the former Soviet bloc............

And if it cannot be sold they will grind it and mix it into wheat flour (the pastry products we can buy already contain too much rice flour) and rice flour based new foods will appear on the market or will be mixed into fodder.

@farmboy Food contamination detection takes specialised equipment and trained technicians. Geiger counters are not useful for detecting food contaminated with radiation unless it is really really badly contaminated.

Regarding mixing, keep in mind that the law doesn't clearly specify the sample lot size.

In many countries, wine is regulated as having a maximum of 15% alcohol.

Some batches of wine have 17%, some batches have 10% or so. The two batches are mixed together and the final product that is sold is below the legal limit. It's not illegal, it's standard practice in the food industry.

Even if one kilogram batch of rice tested at 500 bq/kg it means that some individual grains could be much higher and other grains much lower. Therefore some sushi sized rice portions could actually individually be well over 1000 bq/kg, while other pieces of the same kilogram batch be under 100 bq/kg. These statistics work on averages of samples, not the highest possible measured.

Well if our beloved Japanese government tells us that all the rice from Fukushima is just fine and dandy, well it must be true!! (sarcasm)

use a geiger teller when you buy the rice

It's Me, I did not say any such thing, I said, if you think that the rice is safe, please go ahead and enjoy. However, it is my right to question it's safety and not to eat it, and to be very angry indeed that anything produced in Fukushima is being sold for consumption.

Expect to see this rice in your bentos everywhere in Japan. Also in restaurants. What you don't know won't hurt you. Ignorance is bliss!

use a geiger teller when you buy the rice

Only if you want to know how much background radiation there is in the store.

@Cleo,

Ah, Ok, I understand, thank you. I agree wth you on the whole kokusan thing - there was a time when that was supposed to be reassuring (i.e. "not from China"!) but these days when I read kokusan with no further information I suspect - cynically maybe - that they dont want to say exactly where.

In my local supermarket, when something comes from Hokkaido, Shikoku and so on, they announce it in big print, but when something is labelled "kokusan" and I ask where it is from, they invariably say Tochigi, Gunma, Chiba and so on.

I just want the info so that we can make educated decisions for ourselves and our children.

I remember when there was that scare over poisonous Chinese rice and for a while after that most stores stopped selling rice from China. Then after, about half a year I guess, it slowly came back into the stores. Now, it's hard to find any Chinese rice, even though it's now the Japanese rice that is poisonous. Anyways, I miss Chinese rice.

I have just stopped eating rice and eat quinoa instead. It is healthier anyway and one less thing to be stressed about.

As cleo said, the labeling of products here is a joke. It already annoyed me long before the accident.

I have to say that I find the title of this article astonishing.

Such a blanket statement made no sense to me at all. ..."all newly harvested rice in the prefecture has passed inspection tests for radioactive substances"...

Does this mean rice harvested solely from agreed safe areas ?

Also, it does say 'substances' which sounds plural in English. Is that in fact not true? Some posters here are stating that it is only Cesium of one kind that was tested for. (?)

PS Cleo, no need to put the Kanji into italics! ;8)

Well if our beloved Japanese government tells us that all the rice from Fukushima is just fine and dandy, well it must be true!! (sarcasm)

Well, at the same time our much beloved government will take good care of they will feed on import food out of goodness not to eat super-safe, nutritious and delicious Fukushima rice from us.

Correct me if I am wrong, but I was under the impression that geiger counters can only be used to check atmospheric radiation - you cannot use them to check radiation in food or water?

I am also under the impression - as IT""S ME was saying - that they need to be properly calibrated and recalibrated - which may explain some of the dodgy instruments being used at the moment.

Any responsible government would of course not have released this rice.

Here is what the head of the Fukushima rice and fertilizer cooperative had to say, and if you can work out what he is mumbling, then you are a better man than I am, Gungadin. (Taken from a Yomiuri TV interview, quoted in Yomiuri online.)

＊福島県米穀肥料協同組合・工藤勉統括部長インタビュー 「私らも待ちに待ってたというか今まで販売もなかなか難しかったものですから全部（出荷可能に）なるということで、これから商売に向けてやっていきたい。福島を知ってらっしゃる方はある程度わかると思うんですけど、知らない方っていいますか、遠くの県の方なんかはやっぱりどうしても福島は全部だという風な形になってますので、そこらへんのところをもうちょっとＰＲしながら販売に寄与していきたいと思っています」

I guess what he wants to say is that the people may find this (blanket result) hard to swallow, but it will be his job to try and sell the rice from here on.

While I would very much like to show solidarity with the farmers in Fukushima, I think that it Fukushima branding would simply make me loose my appetite. I probably would not purchase Chernobyl Vodka either. Is there any way around this? Appetites are sensitive things. I think that the folks in Fukushima need to accept this and sell their rice as food ingredients (where at least the consumer is not told), animal feeds (again, no less danger but the consumer will may not be faced with a "Fukushima" brand) or plant biofuels, forrests, or roses. I think that I would purchase some roses from Fukushima, but I may not wish to smell them, I am very sorry to say.

The highest level was 470 becquerels per kilogram in Nihonmatsu. The prefectural government will buy that rice for research purposes.........................

may be looking for mutation ? it goes both way, who knows ? May be they'll discover some super rice out of this.

Just checked J news sources and the poster(s) above was/were correct.

This radiation check in rice was for radioactive Cesium only.

The English plural 'substances' (above article Line 2) must be a mis-translation, I guess.

I'm not gonna buy that rice, I don't care how many times our SCUM government and its SMEGMA bureaucrats try to push us to buy it. They are nothing but LIARS, really deceitful. Their main goal is to reduce the population and kill children it seems to me. The children will be the MAIN victims in this. I feel the pain imagining 10~20 years from now, the cancer and other radiation related illnesses affecting children all over the country because our CORRUPTED government cares more about saving a few yen and keep old dry farmers happy, and for what? these old men will DIE a few years from now and we will still be here suffering the consequences of this CRIME against humanity. Trying to sell and feed the population contaminated food!!! That's the ultimate disgrace of this country. Again, I am utterly disgusted to be a national of this country. I feel shame that this government is more concerned with rising the yen, earning money, world image and all that nonsense instead of trying to save the country population, especially the children. I feel this pain because I have 4 children and I do everything in my power to feed them healthy food. Would you feed contaminated food to your children? Imagine all the little kids eating this contaminated food while being told its good for them in schools, etc. How inhumane and cruel. But then again, there is only one place to blame and condemn: The Japanese government and its lack of care for human life!!!

Rant on, sister! I agree with you 100%, and I appreciate your energy to tell it like it is!

Don't eat Fukushima rice, not because of the radiation, but because it tastes like crap .I only eat Niigata rice which is the best in Japan. （魚沼コシヒカリ）　Uonuma Koshikikari.

In the article it states that the water from the paddies was checked for radiation...........

Yes, at the end. And before that it was "the rice, the rice".

They are now telling us how its done because they are confident most of you people are there are too stupid to catch on...and they are right of course.

You know, rice paddy water does not just sit there and stagnate. It flows. May as well decide by rolling some dice.

If this was imported rice, do you think they would ask for some paddy water to check?

CrazyJoe - I hate to burst your bubble, dude, but Minami Uonuma in Niigata got a blast of radiation in March. According to the MEXT air-radiation maps, that area is humming to the tune of many areas in Fukushima.

Anyone who eats rice from that region is simply out of their mind. For one, how can you possibly trust the officials as we all know they have outright lied to us on countless issues since 3-11 (No Meltdowns! Impossible! Ok, 3 meltdowns...).

Even if they were being "honest", how can you really trust the test results? They have not tested every single grain and they definitely have not tested for every radioisotope. Did they test for all the varieties of iodine, cesium, strontium, americium, tritium, zirconium, uranium, plutonium, etc, etc? Also, who knows what else has been spewed out from Fukushima Daiichi. There could very well be many other hazardous materials that they have not even considered.

The risks are far too high but the Japanese government and the farming industry appear to put profits and the economy ahead of the health of the people. There can be no disputing this. If I was in power I would put a strict food quarantine on the entire areas found to have even slight contamination. Economy and industry be damned. People can adapt and be evacuated to the south. Japan's population is already in steep decline this will simply accelerate it. The people of this country are some of the most honorable and beautiful in the world and it destroys my heart to see this happening. This is worse than any sci-fi or horror movie I can imagine. It is hell in slow motion before our eyes and shows us the true face of the government officials and those in power.

Anyone who eats rice from that region is simply out of their mind. For one, how can you possibly trust the officials as we all know they have outright lied to us on countless issues since 3-11 (No Meltdowns! Impossible! Ok, 3 meltdowns...).

Because they're different "officials".

Prefectural government =/= Kasumigaseki. To best describe their relationaship, they're like cats and dogs.

And for your information, the "likelihood" of a meltdown was announced by Edano as early as March 13th.

@horrified

So what? I still eat it.

Anyone who eats rice from that region is simply out of their mind.

That's not fair! Some people eating that stuff are not crazy at all, just ignorant or stupid!

Others are so old it does not matter for them. But I still argue against their purchase because they cannot eat it all. Every soul should be protesting this tainted garbage lest it get into the kids' food.

BlueWitchOct. 13, 2011 - 08:11PM JST

Their main goal is to reduce the population and kill children it seems to me.

Yes, of course it is. The pharaohs threw the children of the slaves to the crocodiles when they were getting too many. How could this poor government get so many crocodiles? They have to be inventive and find other ways. May be we should ask them over the internet about when killing became their business.

If the government says it's safe, then it is safe. Case closed.

BlueWitch, so what will the government and TEPCO do for the farmers? It is not their fault that their land is unusable. Government is too cheap to pay them not to grow crops. We have lost so many from suicides. Radiation has killed none yet, but people being driven from their homes and jobs, now farmers having no means to make a living will kill more. How many thousands have killed themselves?