Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado Co. will demand suppliers check all beef for radioactivity and only accept products whose levels are within government safety standards.
Supermarket chain Ito-Yokado Co. will demand suppliers check all beef for radioactivity and only accept products whose levels are within government safety standards.
"We cannot reassure consumers any longer simply by indicating the areas beef originally comes from," a company official said.
The retailer has a limited number of suppliers and many of those companies own inspection equipment.
Since July 16, Ito-Yokado has suspended sales of beef from Fukushima Prefecture. The company indicates the names of prefectures beef originally comes from.
Another major supermarket chain, Aeon Co., is having outside inspectors check all beef from 11 prefectures for radioactivity levels as well as domestic beef sold under its own brand.