Long a fall tradition in Japan, mushroom-picking season is headed for a down year, after recent reports surfaced of high levels of radiation contamination in the fungi in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures.
Long a fall tradition in Japan, mushroom-picking season is headed for a down year, after recent reports surfaced of high levels of radiation contamination in the fungi in Fukushima and Ibaraki prefectures.
In one town in Fukushima Prefecture, home to the stricken Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, mushrooms picked in September were found to contain 28,000 becquerels of cesium per kilogram, far exceeding the safety limit of 500 becquerels per/kg.
Following the 1986 Chernobyl nuclear power plant accident, mushrooms were similarly found to have been contaminated with radioactive materials.
Experts say cesium discharged from the Fukushima nuclear plant settled on fallen leaves on the ground, and wild mushrooms are believed to absorb cesium from the layer of foliage or from the soil.
According to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, the average Japanese consumes about 10 grams or less of mushrooms a day.
While many consumers are also raising fears about the safety of packed mushrooms sold on grocery shelves, government officials say those are safe since most of these are grown indoors.
Even with mushrooms grown in cultivation beds using sawdust and other ingredients, producers and sales companies check to make sure that the wood and rice bran, the nutritive substance, have not been contaminated from the accident at the Fukushima plant. Companies also conduct voluntary tests for radiation.
Shiitake mushrooms grown on tree logs outdoors are inspected before shipping.
Shipping restrictions were imposed in certain areas where high levels of radioactive contamination were suspected in wild shiitake mushrooms.
There are also reports by foreign researchers that 90 percent of cesium in wild mushrooms can be eliminated if boiled, according to Yasuyuki Muramatsu, a professor of chemistry at Gakushuin University and an expert in radiation in the environment.
However, some experts point out the necessity of continued study since the influence of cesium on the fallen leaves and soil is not known, raising concerns about the possibility that contamination could continue to have a prolonged effect beyond this year.