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Meals from Fukushima can be freely obtainable within the UK from Wednesday, weeks after Boris Johnson snacked on popcorn from the Japanese prefecture hit by a triple nuclear meltdown in March 2011.
Britain restricted Fukushima imports after the catastrophe, the world’s worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, however has step by step lifted them, whilst different international locations restrict or ban produce from the area.
Johnson confirmed that the remaining restrictions would finish on Wednesday in a gathering the day gone by with the Japanese prime minister, Fumio Kishida, on the fringes of the G7 summit in Germany.
Johnson informed Kishida that UK-Japan relations have been going from “power to power”.
“Two nice island democracies, united in our values, decided to face up collectively towards autocracies and the hazards of drifting backwards on the planet, but in addition eager to do extra collectively on know-how, on safety, on commerce, and naturally I’m delighted that tomorrow – lastly – we’re capable of have Fukushima-origin merchandise all around the outlets within the UK,” he mentioned.
The grocery store chains Tesco and Waitrose have mentioned they haven’t any fast plans to promote Fukushima produce. As an alternative, lots of the objects can be obtainable at Japanese eating places and specialist Japanese shops in England, Scotland and Wales.
The restrictions will stay in place in Northern Eire, which is topic to European Union guidelines on food and drinks from Fukushima and different prefectures affected by the accident 11 years in the past.
The scrapping of the restrictions was made potential after the UK Meals Requirements Company dropped a restrict of 100 becquerels – a measure of radioactivity – per kilogram contained in Japanese meals.
“Our danger evaluation reveals that eradicating the 100 becquerels per kilogram (Bq/kg) most degree of radiocaesium for meals imported from Japan to the UK would end in a negligible enhance in dose and any related danger to UK customers,” the FSA mentioned in a report late final yr.
The Fukushima prefectural authorities says that, post-disaster, its food safety requirements are among the many most stringent in the world. The federal government-set higher restrict for radioactive caesium in bizarre foodstuffs, corresponding to meat and greens, is 100 becquerels per kilogram, in contrast with 1,250Bq/kg within the EU and 1,200Bq/kg within the US.
The lifting of restrictions will have an effect on 23 meals merchandise, corresponding to mushrooms, which beforehand wanted to hold proof that that they had been examined for radioactive materials, in response to Nikkei Asia.
The Japanese authorities mentioned it “welcomes the truth that the UK authorities reached this choice based mostly on scientific proof, as it is going to assist the reconstruction of the affected areas”.
It added that it might “proceed to work in direction of the early lifting of the remaining import restrictions within the EU and different international locations and areas”. China, Russia, South Korea, Indonesia, Taiwan and a number of other different international locations nonetheless impose import restrictions.
Johnson first sampled Fukushima produce in 2017 when, as international secretary, he swigged a can of peach juice given to him by his Japanese counterpart, Taro Kono, declaring it “Yum”.
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