BANGKOK, 16 March 2011 (NNT) – The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) has canceled its order to slow down imports of Japanese food products as radioactive contamination has not been discovered. However, random inspection will continue.
After a meeting with food importers, FDA Secretary-General MD Pipat Yingseri said the entrepreneurs shared the same view that it was not yet necessary to put a brake on imports from Japan, citing the assessment which suggested that the leaked nuclear radiation in the country was still at a controllable level and had not affected the food industry.
Samples of food products arriving at the FDA checkpoint at Suvarnabhumi International Airport from Japan and its neighboring countries have been randomly collected and found to be free of contamination. Dairy and seafood products, which are prone to being tainted, are also being sampled by the Office of Atoms for Peace (OAP) and the result whether any of them has radioactive contamination of higher than 6 Becquerel per kilogram will be known tomorrow.
The FDA has asked entrepreneurs for cooperation in declaring the origins and manufacturing dates of all imported food items. Products manufactured after 15 March 2011 may need to be quarantined for examination during this period.
MD Pipat assured that the FDA is coordinating with the OAP on a daily basis to monitor data from Japan and the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) pertaining to the level of radioactivity. If the situation is reported to be increasing in severity, the food security alert will also be raised.
