© Tomohiro Ohsumi/BloombergPacks of beef are displayed for sale in a supermarket in Fukushima prefecture, Japan.
Hay contaminated with as much as 690,000 becquerels a kilogram, compared with a government safety standard of 300 becquerels, has been fed to cattle. Beef with unsafe levels of the radioactive element was detected in four prefectures, the health ministry said July 23.
Agriculture Minister Michihiko Kano has said officials were unaware of the risk that rice farmers might ship tainted hay to cattle growers. That highlights the government's inability to think ahead and to act, said Mariko Sano, secretary general for Shufuren, a housewives organization in Tokyo.
"The government is so slow to move," Sano said. "They've done little to ensure food safety."
Prolonged exposure to radiation in the air, ground and food can cause leukemia and other cancers, according to the London- based World Nuclear Association.
A growing concern is that the release of radiation into waters near the Fukushima plant may multiply through the seafood chain.
Levels of cesium-134 in seawater near the Fukushima plant's No. 3 reactor rose to levels 30 times the allowed safety standards last week, according to tests performed by Tokyo Electric Power Co, national broadcaster NHK reported.
No Testing System
Japan has no centralized system to check for radiation contamination of food. Prefectural authorities in cooperation with local farmers conduct voluntary tests. Products including spinach, mushrooms, bamboo shoots, tea, milk, plums and fish have been found contaminated with cesium and iodine as far as 360 kilometers from Dai-Ichi.
Tokyo Electric said June 14 it found cesium in milk tested near another nuclear reactor site about 210 kilometers from the Fukushima plant.
The government is considering if it's feasible to test all cattle to prevent shipments of tainted meat to market, according to Yasuo Sasaki, senior press counselor for the agriculture ministry.
Four months after the earthquake and tsunami damage to the Fukushima plant, local governments short of equipment, staff and budget are struggling to test all farm products.
More than 2,600 cattle have been contaminated, Kyodo News reported July 23, after the Miyagi prefectural government said 1,183 cattle at 58 farms were fed the tainted hay before being shipped to meat markets.
Coming after the government banned cattle shipments from Fukushima on July 19, the latest discoveries signal efforts so far haven't been sufficient to protect Japan's food chain.
-- With assistance from Keiko Ujikane and Pavel Alpeyev in Tokyo. Editors: Jim McDonald, Paul Tighe
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