Japanese nuclear-contaminated beef

[kristopher]

Japanese nuclear-contaminated beef "sold in and around Tokyo"

TOKYO, July 17 | Sun Jul 17, 2011 1:29pm EDT

(Reuters) - Japan's second-biggest retailer said on Sunday it had sold beef from cattle that ate nuclear-contaminated feed, the latest in a series of health scares from radiation leaking from a quake-crippled nuclear power plant.

Cases of contaminated vegetables, tea, milk, seafood and water have already stoked anxiety after the world's worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl in 1986, despite assurances from officials that the levels are not dangerous.

Aeon Co (8267.T) said it had sold the contaminated beef at a store in Tokyo and at more than dozen stores in the surrounding area, as radiation continues to spill from the Fukushima nuclear power plant four months after the March 11 earthquake and tsunami.

Aeon, which competes with top retail group Seven & I Holdings (3382.T), said in a statement cattle from Fukushima prefecture were given animal feed originating from rice straw that exceeded the government's limits for radioactive cesium....

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/07/17/japan-nuclear-idUSN1E76G05920110717

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More beef cattle fed with contaminated hay

Fukushima Prefecture has identified 5 additional farms where straw contaminated with high levels of radioactive cesium was used as cattle feed.

The prefecture says 84 cows that ate contaminated straw were shipped to markets across 5 prefectures, including Tokyo, between late March and mid-July.

The straw was found to contain radioactive cesium up to 379 times above safety standards....

Fukushima Prefecture has conducted on-site inspections at the farms and asked them to stop shipping and transferring cattle on a voluntary basis.

http://www3.nhk.or.jp/daily/english/16_15.html

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Shipment ban on beef may widen
Kyodo

The government may consider expanding the area for suspending beef cattle shipments beyond Fukushima Prefecture, where it plans to soon impose such curbs, senior vice health minister Kohei Otsuka said Sunday.

"We are currently considering Fukushima Prefecture, but we may have to consider the need for further response by checking the distribution of contaminated straw," Otsuka said on a TV program.

The government's nuclear disaster task force is set to suspend shipments of beef cattle from Fukushima Prefecture, where the crippled Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant reactors are spewing radiation, amid concern that some beef from a local farm was found to be contaminated with radioactive cesium after being fed with tainted straw.

Otsuka proposed setting up an inspection base for conducting urine examinations on all cows and returning those that show levels of radioactive substances higher than the government-set limit to farms so they can be decontaminated by giving them safe feed.

Under this idea...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110717x2.html

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84 more Fukushima cows found shipped
Cattle fed contaminated hay sent to five prefectures
Kyodo

A further 84 cows shipped from five beef cattle farms in Fukushima Prefecture were fed with hay containing high levels of radioactive cesium, the prefectural government said Saturday.

The cows were shipped between March 28 and July 13 to slaughterhouses in five prefectures — Miyagi, Fukushima, Yamagata, Saitama and Tokyo — and the Fukushima Prefectural Government has asked municipalities to check whether that meat has been distributed.

Fifty-three of the cows were sent to Tokyo, 19 to Fukushima Prefecture, eight to Kawaguchi in Saitama Prefecture, two to Yamagata Prefecture and two to Sendai in Miyagi Prefecture.

The latest findings surfaced during a survey of farms the prefecture started July 11, after a farm in Minamisoma was found to have fed cows with hay containing radioactive cesium far above the government's limit of 500 becquerels per kg.

According to the prefectural government...

http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20110717a1.html


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Potentially radioactive beef went to 29 prefectures

2011/07/17

Cattle at a farm in Date, Fukushima Prefecture, feed on hay donated by the town of Noto, Ishikawa Prefecture, on July 15. (Hiroshi Kawai)

Twenty-nine prefectures received beef from 42 cattle shipped from a farm in Asakawa, Fukushima Prefecture, where straw contaminated with radioactive cesium was fed to livestock.

In two cases, cesium exceeding the government safety standard of 500 becquerels per kilogram was detected in the beef.

Cesium levels of 694 becquerels per kg were found in Yamagata Prefecture in beef from a cow from the farm. Yamagata prefectural government officials said the beef was from among 10 cattle the Asakawa farm shipped to Sendai.

The beef is stored by a wholesaler in Sakata, Yamagata Prefecture, who purchased it....

http://www.asahi.com/english/TKY201107160321.html

[no_hypocrisy]

1. Two questions:

1. Now that Japan has had notice that some beef may in fact be contaminated with radiation, don't they now have a duty to inspect all future beef products for sale (by Geiger Counter or something?) before it gets into the market?

2. What are U.S. inspectors doing about this? This country imports Kobe Beef. How is it segregated from non-irradiated beef?

[kristopher]

3. They only have a couple of the $200,000+ machines to test food with, and...

... they take some time to get.

They are procuring more, but in the meantime they are curtailing shipments from the affected areas. The real problem is that the affected areas are far more widely distributed than anyone suspected. The hay is coming from up to 75km away from the plant, and in a direction (WSW) they didn't suspect was contaminated. They also found a similar distant problem with mushrooms grown in cow manure.

This has called into question the entire food supply from that region. The pathways for contamination to enter and travel though the food chain are not comprehensively cataloged.

[AndyTiedye]

4. I Think the Market for Japanese Kobe Beef in the US May Have Dried Up

I suppose they could sell it to those people who think irradiated food is a good idea.

[kristopher]

6. I know you meant it as a quip, but it leads to an interesting point

Cold pasteurization (the use of cobalt to irradiate food and kill pathogens) is a publicly accepted, well understood, widely used practice in Japan.
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/sources/food_irrad.html

See also:
http://www.epa.gov/radiation/radionuclides/cesium.html


So, judging by the fact that the public there is going to great lengths to avoid buying the contaminated beef, we know your premise that "they could sell it to those people who think irradiated food is a good idea" doesn't work there. The Japanese public is simply too well informed.

[LiberalEsto]

2. On the bright side, it's probably salmonella-free

:sarcasm:

[txlibdem]

5. No need to cook it, just slice off a hunk and enjoy! Mmmm tastes NOOK-u-LUR-y

This could be the start of a new food industry. Precooked right in the field! I claim the copyright.

[AndyTiedye]

7. Could Help Solve Japan's Power Woes

If there's a power outage during dinner, no problemo!
The main course glows in the dark.

[txlibdem]

8. Another plus for the 50 year old nuclear power plants at Fukushima

You can see your food even in the dark.