Tea exporter disputes French cesium measurements

SHIZUOKA--Exported tea that the French government says contained double the European Union's safety standard of radioactive cesium has been tracked down to a company in Omaezaki city, Shizuoka Prefecture.

The French government reported June 17 that inspectors at Charles de Gaulle Airport detected 1,038 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram in a shipment of tea from Japan.

The Shizuoka prefectural government revealed June 20 that the tea concerned was "genmai-cha," a mix of green tea leaves and roasted brown rice. The export certificate for the shipment connected it to the company in Omaezaki.

The firm told The Asahi Shimbun that the French inspection results were flawed.

A company representative said six rounds of voluntary inspections had found a maximum of only about 400 becquerels of radioactivity per kilogram of tea leaves. The European Union maximum is 500 becquerels per kilogram.

"We cannot accept the inspection result, given that nearly half is made up of brown rice grains. Our products have never exceeded the safety standard," the company official said.

According to the economy and industries division of the Shizuoka prefectural government, the tea is made solely for the French market and is not available in Japan.

The brown rice grains, which account for about 45 percent of the tea's weight, were harvested last year or earlier. The tea was from this year's first harvest and was a blend of the company's products from different parts of the prefecture. All of the tea in the shipment was from Shizuoka, the local government said.

The Shizuoka prefectural government has asked the manufacturer to recall the genmai-cha involved in the tests and has collected samples for reinspection on June 21 at the Yokohama Quarantine Station of the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare.

(This article was written by Ryota Goto and Hiroyuki Kamisawa.)