Beef from 648 cows suspected of being contaminated with radioactive cesium had been shipped to at least 43 prefectures around Japan as of July 19, according to an Asahi Shimbun investigation.
Beef from 648 cows suspected of being contaminated with radioactive cesium had been shipped to at least 43 prefectures around Japan as of July 19, according to an Asahi Shimbun investigation.
Beef from cattle raised at 19 ranches in Fukushima, Yamagata and Niigata prefectures was suspected of contamination after the cattle were fed on rice straw exposed to cesium at levels higher than the national safety standard.
The government on July 19 instructed that shipment of beef cattle from Fukushima Prefecture be banned.
The cesium was released in plumes that spread widely from the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant.
Tottori, Miyazaki, Kagoshima and Okinawa prefectures are the only ones to which the possibly affected beef has not been reported shipped, The Asahi Shimbun found.
On July 19, six prefectures--Okayama, Shimane, Saga, Nagasaki, Kumamoto and Oita--were added to the list of places where questionable meat was shipped.
That meat came from 192 cows shipped to a slaughterhouse in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture, from a ranch in Sukagawa, Fukushima Prefecture.
A supermarket in Matsuura, Nagasaki Prefecture, sold 52.6 kilograms of the beef in packages from May 15 to June 4.
In the prefectural capital of Nagasaki, 189.7 kg of beef from six suspect head of cattle was offered for sale at a supermarket.
Officials at the city health center are trying to confirm when and how much of the meat consumers bought.
After the news broke that contaminated beef was suspected of being circulated, the average price of "wagyu" beef traded at the Tokyo Metropolitan Central Wholesale Market on July 19 plunged below half its price of the weekend before.
The average price for mainstay "A-4" class beef was 607 yen ($7.70) per kg, down from last weekend's 1,414 yen. "A-3" class beef fetched 584 yen, almost half the price of the weekend before.
The problems arose after ranchers were suspected of feeding cattle rice straw exposed to radioactive cesium.
Such paddy straw is not banned from shipment because it is not considered a food source.
Administrative authorities had instructed farmers to feed cattle only straw that had been mowed prior to the nuclear accident, but have no way of preventing them from feeding cattle cesium-contaminated rice straw.
Thus, beef contamination will vary from rancher to rancher, depending on how they feed their cattle.
The health ministry and prefectural government have established a program to prevent contamination of beef.
For all cattle ranches located outside areas designated by the central government that have higher radiation exposure, officials will conduct checks to determine if the animals have been fed contaminated feed.
Prefectural officials will repeat the same checks at two-month intervals.
If no problems are found, the shipment ban may be lifted. Still, at least one cow from each ranch will be checked for radioactive contamination.
If the levels of radioactivity stay sufficiently below safety standards, shipments will be permitted on a provisional basis.
Prefectural officials will conduct additional spot checks of at least one cow per ranch at later dates.
In addition, all beef from ranches within the designated zone will be examined for possible contamination after slaughter.
Whether the checks prove effective depends on how strictly ranchers abide by the rules on feed management.
An official at the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare said that many farmers recognized the importance of keeping feed safe after reports spread about the cesium contamination of beef.
"The program may not completely prevent a recurrence of the contamination in beef, but it may prove highly effective," the official said.
The agriculture ministry said it will carry out nationwide checks on rice straw.
There were reports on July 19 that paddy straw produced in Miyagi Prefecture, north of Fukushima Prefecture, that was sold in many parts of the country, was found to have traces of cesium.
A check of rice straw in Saitama Prefecture found 19,490 becquerels of cesium per kilogram.
That is the equivalent of 4,440 becquerels per kg before drying, which is about 15 times the national safety limit of 300 becquerels.
Ibaraki prefectural officials detected more than 11 times the national standard in rice straw before drying.
Officials in Miyagi Prefecture will carry out analyses of rice straw at 64 ranches because farmers admitted using as feed rice straw bought after the nuclear accident.
Masanori Nonaka, professor of soil science at Niigata University, said that rice straw absorbs high levels of radioactivity through the repeated process of absorbing water laced with cesium and then being dried.
Four rice straw vendors in Miyagi Prefecture who reportedly shipped to the six prefectures are located in areas more than 100 kilometers from the troubled nuclear power plant.
Hideo Yamazaki, professor of environmental analysis at Kinki University, said the radioactive plumes that spread from the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant on several occasions after the accident are to blame for contaminated food being found in faraway Tokyo and nearby areas.
"The plumes containing various radioactive substances from the plant fell to the ground with rainfall or after bumping up against mountains, which led to higher concentrations in some locations," he said.
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What's the situation with Japan's beef?
Question: How hazardous is the contaminated beef that has been sold in markets?
Answer: The meat of 43 cows checked as of July 18 showed contamination of up to 4,350 becquerels of cesium per kilogram. The safety standard is 500 becquerels.
Hiroki Ohtani, an associate professor of radiologic science at Tokyo Metropolitan University, said beef containing radiation levels above the safety limit itself would not pose a threat if a person eats only a small amount. However, ingesting contaminated beef should be avoided as much as possible, Ohtani said, because exposure to radiation may occur through the consumption of other foods as well, compounding the problem.
Q: How widely did this contamination in rice straw occur?
A: In some cases, beef from cattle fed contaminated straw did not show high contamination levels, even though the straw the animals ate likely had higher radiation levels than the safety standard.
This is because the concentration of cesium correlates to the amount of contaminated rice straw ingested and how many days the animal was fed the straw. For example, up to 22,045 becquerels of radiation per kg was detected in rice straw of a pre-drying equivalent at a farm in Asakawa, Fukushima Prefecture.
Yet examination of the meat from 18 cows from that farm as of July 18 found that only 10 showed radiation levels higher than the national standard, ranging from 2,100 becquerels to 610 becquerels. Some of the animals' meat was below the level of detection.
Q: Will this problem lead to a shortage of beef?
A: No. Fukushima Prefecture supplies just about 3 percent of the beef sold nationwide.