Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) Administrative Committee Vice President O Lam said yesterday that the bureau is paying close attention to Japan’s planned discharge of radioactive wastewater from the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster into the ocean, adding that the bureau did not rule out the possibility of conducting random inspections of all fresh produce imported from Japan.
Japan announced its plan to gradually discharge more than a million tonnes of treated water from the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant as early as next month.
O made the remarks during a regular meeting of the IAM Administrative Committee and Consultative Committee, addressing some committee members’ concerns about the government’s response once Japan starts to discharge nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea.
O stressed that the bureau has already strengthened its testing of imported and commercially available food products from Japan in the local market, and increased the sample size and detection parameters of possible nuclear radiation levels in Japanese food products from the beginning of this year, aiming to gather sufficient data for comparisons in the future.
O acknowledged that the food and beverage sector may face some problems such as having to fulfil IAM’s requirements of raising the sampling percentage of the imported food-and-beverage products, and she did not rule of the possibility of imposing stricter requirements on all fresh produce imported by Macau, adding that the bureau would also strengthen sampling of food in the local market.
The bureau said earlier that once Japan starts to discharge nuclear-contaminated wastewater into the sea, IAM officials will expand the scope of suspension of import applications from Japan’s nine highest risk prefectures, including aquatic products, vegetables and fruit from Tokyo and Chiba, while fresh produce from the problematic areas in Japan could then only enter Macau after passing relevant inspection and quarantine measures.
Municipal Affairs Bureau (IAM) Administrative Committee Vice President O Lam speaks during a regular meeting of the IAM Administrative Committee and Consultative Committee yesterday at the IAM headquarters. – Photo by IAM
