site.btaJapanese Embassy Dismisses Media Reports of Radioactive Japanese Food in Bulgaria

Japanese Embassy Dismisses Media Reports of Radioactive Japanese Food in Bulgaria

Sofia, April 14 (BTA) - The Japanese Embassy in Sofia dismissed reports in some Bulgarian news media that radioactive Japanese food is sold in Bulgaria. "Japan and the Japanese foodstuffs are safe. Even if fish and seafood from Fukushima have reached Bulgaria, people can rest assured that they are perfectly safe for consumption," the Embassy said in a statement.

"Telegraf" daily, among other news outlets, reported earlier this month that canned and frozen fish from the radioactive zone of the Fukushima N-plant is freely available on the Bulgarian market. According to this report, such fish can be recognized by the designation of origin on the package, FAO61.

The media also quoted the Bulgarian Food Safety Agency as saying that the fish sold in Bulgaria is caught in China and not in the Fukushima area, and that there is no risk of purchasing contaminated food in Bulgarian supermarkets because production of food and fishing is banned in the areas around the Fukushima N-plant where radioactivity is high.

The Embassy further says that ever since the devastating earthquake on March 3, 2011, the Japanese authorities are exercising strict control on the food produced in the affected areas, including the Fukushima Prefecture. Japan has set in place the world's most stringent safety standards. The share of samples from foodstuffs which exceeded the maximum permissible levels during the period from March of last year to February this year is 0.1 per cent, and almost all of these were wild mushrooms and meat from game and wild birds.

As for fish from the Fukushima Prefecture, contaminated samples were over 50 per cent in April-June 2011 but this share has since dropped to zero, the Embassy says.

It also says that in March 2016, the International Atomic Energy Agency said that the food supply chain in Japan is being efficiently controlled by the competent authorities.