Radiation above the legal limit has been detected in a vegetable grown in Tokyo, Japan's health ministry said, amid a deepening food scare that has seen some imports from the country banned. The level of radiation found in a sample of Komatsuna, or Japanese mustard spinach, was 890 becquerels per kilogram, exceeding the legal limit of 500, the ministry said.
It is the first time radioactive caesium exceeding the legal limit has been found in a Tokyo vegetable, public broadcaster NHK said. Two weeks after Japan was crippled in the March 11 earthquake and tsunami, the crisis at the Fukushima nuclear plant north-east of Tokyo remains unresolved. With the plant emitting radioactive materials, higher levels of radiation have been found in nearby farm produce and Japan has stopped the shipment of those vegetable and dairy products. Tokyo's drinking water hit unsafe levels for infants this week amid the global food scare.
The ministry said that the radioactive caesium was detected on March 24 in the leafy green Komatsuna taken from a field in Edogawa ward. It had been grown at a research centre and is not being sold on the market. The level of radioactivity would not have an adverse effect on health, even if the vegetable was eaten, the report said. On March 25, South Korea and the EU joined the United States, Russia and several other countries in restricting food imports. Higher radioactivity has also been detected in the ocean near the Fukushima plant on Japan's Pacific coast, raising public fears about the safety of fish and seaweed, which are traditional staples in the island nation's diet.