Fiscal 2016 inspections on radioactivity implemented by 17 prefectural governments in Japan did not found any samples of agricultural and livestock products contaminated above the regulation values set by the Government, which is the first time since the testing began in fiscal 2011, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) announced on March 3.
These 17 governments continued to reveal the results of the inspections since fiscal 2011 when a disaster took place at the Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear Power Plant of the Tokyo Electric Power Company in Fukushima prefecture on March 11, 2011 due to the Great East Japan Earthquake.
The latest results of the inspections have reassured consumers about safety of farm products distributed in the markets on the basis of the data as well.
The radioactivity testing has covered nine categories of farm products including rice, vegetables, fruits, and meats.
The number of these samples that exceeded the regulation values was decreasing year by year. Since the fiscal year of 2013, a composition ratio of those samples has been reduced less than 1 percent.
According to MAFF, radiocesium decontamination from farm lands in Fukushima prefecture has been almost completed.
“Farmers at the disaster areas in Fukushima prefecture have been successfully taking complete measures to remove contamination of farm products according to our guidance”, MAFF’s official of the Agricultural Production Bureau said.
What the farmers did includes elimination of contaminated surface soils, deeper ploughing, spreading of zeolite on paddy fields, raising livestock animals with non-contaminated feed stuff, and other works.