Fukushima contaminated food products could be entering UK markets

Food being produced around the Fukushima nuclear disaster site in Japan could be entering the British food market as a result of loopholes in food safety rules.

A report in the Independent stated that food products including tea, noodles and chocolate bars that are believed to be radiation contaminated have already been exported from Japan under false labelling.

The alarm regarding a scandal in Britain comes weeks after a similar alarm in Taiwan, when close to 300 food products, that had been imported under false pretenses from areas near the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant, were cleared by the country’s Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

The Independent report further cites warnings from experts who say Britain’s food regulations are not strong enough to prevent such products that raise the prospect of mildly carcinogenic ingredients from entering the country’s food chain.

While there is no evidence of any contaminated food entering the UK market, experts are of the opinion that there were chances that the products have already arrived.

Principal adviser in London to a food safety consultancy Shantalla Alastair Marke was quoted by the Independent as saying: "I suspect what has happened in Taiwan might well have already happened in the UK. Intermediary supply chain middlemen can buy food in bulk and package and label as they like, before shipping them to the UK.

"Although we have adopted one of the world’s most comprehensive and stringent traceability laws, the UK has virtually no control over how foods are processed, manufactured and packaged in Japan."

Food produced in the region around Fukushima prefecture has to be declared and tested for radiation before being exported and on arrival in the UK. But fraudsters are increasingly taking advantage of the system and passing off products from the region as coming from somewhere else.