Twenty-nine prefectures received beef from 42 cattle shipped from a farm in Asakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, where straw contaminated with radioactive cesium was fed to livestock.
Twenty-nine prefectures received beef from 42 cattle shipped from a farm in Asakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, where straw contaminated with radioactive cesium was fed to livestock.
In two cases, cesium exceeding the government safety standard of 500 becquerels per kilogram was detected in the beef.
Cesium levels of 694 becquerels per kg were found in Yamagata Prefecture in beef from a cow from the farm. Yamagata prefectural government officials said the beef was from among 10 cattle the Asakawa farm shipped to Sendai.
The beef is stored by a wholesaler in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, who purchased it.
Earlier, Tokyo metropolitan government officials said beef from another cow from the farm contained cesium levels of 650 becquerels per kg.
As of 1 p.m. on July 16, beef from the 42 cattle was distributed to 29 prefectures, according to a survey by The Asahi Shimbun.
Thirteen of the cattle were sent to meat treatment centers in Tokyo, five to Chiba Prefecture, 10 to Sendai and 14 to Yokohama, and their beef was sold at central wholesale markets in Tokyo, Sendai and Yokohama.
The meat reached supermarkets and stores in 25 other prefectures: Iwate, Akita, Yamagata, Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma, Saitama, Ishikawa, Yamanashi, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Osaka, Hyogo, Hiroshima, Kagawa, Ehime, Fukuoka, Kyoto, Niigata, Fukui, Nagano, Mie and Shiga.
In nine prefectures--Akita, Ibaraki, Gunma, Ishikawa, Gifu, Shizuoka, Aichi, Kagawa and Ehime--the beef was sold to consumers, according to the survey.
The Asakawa farm said straw contaminated with radioactive cesium was not fed to seven of the 42 cattle, but it was not clear which meat treatment centers received these animals.
Miyagi prefectural government officials said July 15 radioactive cesium above provisional government standards was detected from straw sampled at three cattle farms in the cities of Tome and Kurihara on July 13.
The prefectural government told cattle breeders not to ship animals fed with straw collected after March 11, when the tsunami crippled the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant.
The straw at one farm in Tome contained 3,647 becquerels of cesium per kg. That figure translates into pre-drying levels of 831 becquerels, 2.77 times the provisional standard of 300 becquerels.
The straw at a farm in Kurihara contained 2,449 becquerels per kg, or pre-drying levels of 558, and the straw at a second farm in Tome contained 1,632 becquerels, or pre-drying levels of 372.
Fukushima prefectural government officials started checking farms in the prefecture following the detection of excessive cesium from 11 cattle shipped from Minami-Soma. The straw tested in Minami-Soma was found to have as much as 17,000 becquerels of cesium.
The beef from Minami-Soma contained about 3,000 becquerels of cesium. Experts said eating the beef would not immediately lead to health problems.