U.S and EU ease import rules from areas near Fukushima, Japan

The United States and European Union have changed the rules around the import of food from areas near Fukushima in Japan. While the Food and Drug Administration has removed an import alert, the European Commission has amended regulations to modify checks on food imports. In March 2011, an accident at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant released radiological contamination to the surrounding areas. After the disaster, the Government of Japan determined that certain food products in affected prefectures, also known as states, were not fit for human consumption, because of the public health risk associated with radionuclide contamination and prohibited these items from sale in Japan and for export. American measures The U.S. Food and Drug Administration put in place an import alert on certain food products from Japanese prefectures near the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant in 2011. It instructed FDA field personnel to detain shipments from Japan if the food is ...