Concepts of Inspection Planning and Establishment and Cancellation of Items and Areas to which Restriction of Distribution and/or Consumption of Foods Concerned Applies

This table shows the required number of samples and frequencies of inspections for local governments whose inspections detected radioactive cesium concentrations exceeding the standard limits (those marked with ◎) and local governments whose inspections detected radioactive cesium concentrations exceeding half of the standard limits (those marked with ●).

The “Concepts of Inspection Planning and Establishment and Cancellation of Items and Areas to which Restriction of Distribution and/or Consumption of Foods Concerned Applies” (March 30, 2022) by the Nuclear Emergency Response Headquarters specifies as follows.

• Regarding local governments that have detected radioactive cesium concentrations exceeding half of the standard limits in any food under this food classification since April 2021, inspections should be conducted for three or more samples for each municipality in the areas where radioactive cesium concentrations exceeding half of the standard limits were detected, and for one or more samples for each municipality in other areas (it is permissible to divide a prefecture into multiple zones across municipalities and conduct inspections for three or more samples in each of those zones) (marked with ◎ and ○ in the table).

For the cancellation of items and areas to which restriction of distribution and/or consumption of foods concerned applies, the following conditions are presented: inspection results within the latest one month are all below the standard limits for at least three locations per municipality, in principle; and for crops such as log-cultured shiitake mushrooms, for which cultivation management is especially required to keep radioactive cesium concentrations below the standard limits, factors causing contamination exceeding the standard limits are surely removed through management, etc.

• Included in this reference material on March 31, 2013
• Updated on March 31, 2023