FDA and Fisheries Department assure fish from Fukushima safe for consumption

[snoop1130]

FDA and Fisheries Department assure fish from Fukushima safe for consumption

 

 

The Office of Food and Drug Administration and the Fisheries Department assured consumers that they don’t have to be worried with the fish imported from Japan’s Fukushima prefecture as they were strictly checked by officials concerned to make sure they are safe for consumption.

 

A joint press conference was held this morning by FDA secretary-general Dr Wanchai Satayawutthipong and Mrs Umaporn Pimonbutr, deputy director-general of Fisheries Department to clear the air after a Japanese news report of fish from Fukushima prefecture where a nuclear reactor accident took place in 2011 were imported to Thailand and on sale at Japanese restaurants.

 

Dr Wanchai said that the FDA and the Ministry of Agriculture and Cooperatives had meted out measures for radiation-tainted non-processed food to be imported into the country that the total amount of radio-active isotopes such as iodine-131, cesium-134 and cesium-137 must not exceed 500 Bq/kg.

 

Also, the importer of the food in question must produce a certificate or origin assuring that the radio-active contaminated food is well within the acceptable limit, he added.

 

The Japanese embassy has informed the FDA and the Public Health Ministry that Japan has adopted a strict measure to control food tainted with radiation that the amount of radiation must not exceed the safety level or the food will be immediately destroyed to prevent them to be distributed to consumers in Japan and elsewhere.

 

Full Story: http://englishnews.thaipbs.or.th/fda-fisheries-department-assure-fish-fukushima-safe-consumption/

 

-- © Copyright Thai PBS 2018-3-6

[Chris Lawrence]

So were is the fish and chip dinner to prove they believe its safe?

[worgeordie]

The ones with 3 heads are especially tasty.

regards worgeordie

[ikke]

If there is one department in Thailand where the most uneducated and stupid people have a word, its the FDA...... useless uneducated group of people that need to control food safety and dont have a clue at all about food safety....

 

[connda]

FDA and Fisheries Department assure fish from Fukushima safe for consumption

I don't think so, and I don't want to bet my health on it.  TEPCO and the Japanese government were telling Japanese that there were no problems in area that independent investigators proved to the contrary that many of those areas were 'hot' and contaminated way beyond acceptable level. 
Interesting how governments work.  When the rads go up, simply raise the bar of what is 'acceptable' levels of contamination.  Government will lie in order to advance the interests of their corporate lobbies and donors. 
Nope. I don't trust this one iota.  If I can't verify where ocean fish and product are originating, I won't buy them.  And if that means that my family stops eating all ocean-based products, so be it. 

[webfact]

Criticism over Fukushima fish imports

By THE NATION

 

 

AUTHORITIES HAVE defended Thailand’s importation of fish from Fukushima, the scene of a major nuclear accident and radioactive leak in 2011.
 

“The imported fish have passed radioactive standards of the [Thai] Food and Drug Administration [FDA],” the Fisheries Department’s deputy director-general Umaporn Pimolbutr said yesterday. She spoke after concern was raised about the imports. 

 

 

FDA secretary-general Wanchai Sattayawuthipong, who later in the day appeared with Umaporn at a press conference, urged Thais not to panic. 

 

“You can have confidence in the FDA and relevant organisations,” Wanchai said. “If we detect any contaminated fish, we will destroy or immediately return the item.” 

 

A report by Japan Times revealed on March 1 that Fukushima prefecture’s first shipment of fish since the March 2011 accident had been exported to Thailand. 

 

The crisis in Fukushima is often described as the worst nuclear accident since the Chernobyl incident in 1986. 

 

 

Last month, a report by The Independent also revealed that lethal levels of radiation were still being detected at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plant, seven years after it was destroyed by an earthquake and tsunami.

 

“I cannot confirm as to whether we are the first to import fish from Fukushima [since 2011]. But I can tell you that we have checked the imported fish,” Umaporn said.

 

Thailand bans the importation of food that has more than 100 becquerel of iodine 131 per kilogram/litre or combined concentrations of caesium 137 and 134 more than 500bq/kg/litre. 

 

Importers must produce certificates specifying the amount of radioactive substances and the origin of the food. 

 

“The certificate must be issued by a government agency from the country of origin or any institute recognised by the relevant government agency of the country of origin,” Umaporn said. 

 

She added that Thailand had never tried to block seafood exported from Japan. 

 

“If it passes radioactive standards set by the Public Health Ministry, then it can enter Thailand,” she said. 

 

She added that 130kg of flatfish and sole had arrived in Thailand on February 28. 

 

The Japan Times reported that the fish would be served at 12 Japanese restaurants in Thailand. 

 

Public opposition to the importation was expressed by one consumer in Thailand who wrote online: “Is the only thing the Fisheries Department will do is just check certificates? There is no other responsibility here?” 

 

Another netizen sarcastically compared Thais to guinea pigs in labs to test the impact of fish that might have been contaminated. 

 

Wanchai downplayed public concerns by emphasising that the FDA had worked closely with Japan’s Public Health Ministry to uphold the standards of imported food. 

 

He said Japan’s Public Health Ministry had collected 7,408 seafood samples in Fukushima. Of them, only eight had a higher concentrations of radioactive substances than allowed. Of these eight samples, four were whitespotted chars and four others were cherry salmon. 

 

“Thailand has not imported these types of fish,” Wanchai said. 

 

He added that his agency had also conducted tests on various fish and other seafood samples in Thailand to determine if any had been contaminated with radioactive substances. 

 

“There has not been a single case of contamination,” he said. 

 

Wanchai said the Medical Sciences Department also conducted random tests between March and April, 2016 and found no contamination. 

 

“In the event you suspect that any food product may be harmful to health, alert us via Hotline 1556 or the Oryor Smart Application,” he said. 

 

Source: http://www.nationmultimedia.com/detail/national/30340347

 

-- © Copyright The Nation 2018-03-07

[doremifasol]

FDA...............the fish is safe for consumption .............not been a single case of contamination..............blah, blah, blah............

 

but then I look at her  face .........

 

it speaks  volumes........

 

 

[colinneil]

So the FDA say the fish is safe to eat.

Ok let them all line up/ sit down and eat show the people, not just spout about it.

Edited March 6, 2018 by colinneil

[Suttisan]

People will be walking around like the dude covered in toxic waste in robocop, I'll stick to sandwiches thanks

[trainman34014]

1 hour ago, doremifasol said:

FDA...............the fish is safe for consumption .............not been a single case of contamination..............blah, blah, blah............

 

but then I look at her  face .........

 

it speaks  volumes........

 

 

Being as dim as a plank of wood her face reflects her knowledge of the subject at hand !

[johng]

People will be walking around like the dude covered in toxic waste in robocop, I'll stick to sandwiches thanks

Tuna sandwiches by any chance ?

The guy melting after being covered in toxic waste was often cut (censored) from that great film.

They recon it will take 30 years to fully contain the Fukashima disaster..
3 reactor meltdowns ! ! !

[Darcula]

Local food critics have given glowing reviews, I heard.

[RichardColeman]

 Fukishima Fish Sellers 

Edited March 7, 2018 by RichardColeman

[BuaBS]

You can avoid it by not eating it , but who's gonna know when they put it in cat & dog food ?

[elgenon]

I would get some for my aquarium. They would light up my house and save me money.

[soalbundy]

If the radiation doesn't get you the mercury will

[Lupatria]

If I would run a hotel here, I would hang a poster in the restaurant saying: “FUKUSHIMA SEAFOOD”. Maybe, just maybe, that would keep the Chinese from acting as “buffet-rotary-hoes”

I find it kind of alarming when FDA secretary-general Dr. Wanchai Satayawutthipongthe says: radio-active contaminated food is well within the acceptable limit. If wannabe experts like him set the limit, I'm worried. 

In my humble opinion food should not be contaminated at all. His statement is like telling people: it’s OK to become half pregnant.

Headline in UK news from 2^nd Feb 2018 – Fukushima nuclear disaster:

Lethal levels of radiation detected in leak seven years after plant meltdown in Japan.

Expert warns of 'global' consequences unless the plant is treated properly

[ostyan]

Interesting. Japan should know something, what the rest of the world not. Chernobyl was in 1986 long time before Fukusima. It is still closed, no one can visit the place, because of the radiation. Fukushima could fully recover in the past seven years.

I think I will not eat fish these days...

[shady86]

Consumers have choice. Boycott Japanese food!

[Anak Nakal]

I will not eat those fish!

[Lucky mike]

Should be served daily to these two until they die !

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

7 minutes ago, Anak Nakal said:

I will not eat those fish!

 

I would not believe anything the Thai FDA and Fisheries Department have to say...

 

And, I would not eat those fish... But then again, I don't eat ANY fish in Thailand considering the various issues of where the fish comes from, the waters/environment they're raised in, and the forced labor problems in the local fishing industry.

 

Fukushima is just the cherry on the top of that bad tasting fish cake.

 

 

[TallGuyJohninBKK]

13 hours ago, ikke said:

If there is one department in Thailand where the most uneducated and stupid people have a word, its the FDA...... useless uneducated group of people that need to control food safety and dont have a clue at all about food safety....

 

 

I don't know about the uneducated part, but I certainly agree about the useless part. They have a long history of having proven themselves useless when it comes to protecting the health of people living in Thailand against tainted foods and other products.

 

But, to be fair, they have a lot of strong competition from other Thai government departments in the most "useless" competition.

 

[Cranky]

How do we know what fish has been imported from there so we can avoid it?  I'll not order any fish again here unless I see it swimming - too many restaurants will buy it in the cheap and pass off as Cod or Sea Bass just like cheap Pangasius from mercury infested Mekong.

[Elkski]

Chernobyl is so different than fukushima.  Chernobyl had brave people who put a cap on the plant and they cooked the corium.   7 years after fukushima they haven't cooked squat and the coriums are missing having melted out the bottom of the containment vessel .  The underlying strata has lots of aquifers that drain off the mountainside and go out to sea. I warn you if you read much about Fukushima it will depress you. 

 

I should add that Tepco had lied and hid things along the way.  It's to hot in there for any robot to survive so they can't even do anything.  We are looking at a 100 year mess.  

Edited March 7, 2018 by Elkski

[CGW]

3 minutes ago, Elkski said:

 I warn you if you read much about Fukushima it will depress you. 

Ain't that the truth, for some reason? the powers that be put a news block on information coming out of there & still are - why?

No fish for me!

[dick dasterdly]

11 minutes ago, Elkski said:

Chernobyl is so different than fukushima.  Chernobyl had brave people who put a cap on the plant and they cooked the corium.   7 years after fukushima they haven't cooked squat and the coriums are missing having melted out the bottom of the containment vessel .  The underlying strata has lots of aquifers that drain off the mountainside and go out to sea. I warn you if you read much about Fukushima it will depress you. 

 

I should add that Tepco had lied and hid things along the way.  It's to hot in there for any robot to survive so they can't even do anything.  We are looking at a 100 year mess.  

Wouldn't suprise me at all  - but you missed that (I gather) Chernobyl is still a radioactive wasteland.

Edited March 7, 2018 by dick dasterdly

[dick dasterdly]

“You can have confidence in the FDA and relevant organisations,” Wanchai said. “If we detect any contaminated fish, we will destroy or immediately return the item.” 

 

As a cynic, I particularly liked this sentence i.e.  'IF we detect any contaminated fish', and  "immediately return the item" .....

[johng]

Wouldn't suprise me at all  - but you missed that (I gather) Chernobyl is still a radioactive wasteland.

So are large parts of Fukashima
the Japanese "got lucky" in that the wind was blowing towards the sea and not towards Tokyo.
3 reactors went into meltdown hydrogen from the cooling water then blew the lids off spewing radioactive material.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Towns_evacuated_around_Fukushima_on_April_11th,_2011.png

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Fukushima_accidents_overview_map.svg

[connda]

7 hours ago, RichardColeman said:

 Fukishima Fish Sellers 

Selling Fission Chips!