Koreans wary of safety of imported Japanese food

By Lee Hyo-sik

Ahn Eun-hye, a 29-year-old housewife from Yeoksam-dong, southern Seoul, goes grocery shopping at a nearby supermarket every two days. She often buys fish including pollack for her husband who prefers it to meat as a main source of protein due to health reasons.

But that’s until a mega-earthquake and following tsunami devastated Japan, especially the nuclear complex in Fukushima.

“Since I heard the news last week that radioactive material was found in milk and spinach produced near Japan’s Fukushima nuclear power plants, I have become uncomfortable purchasing pollack and other imported seafood from Japan,” Ahn said.

The housewife said she will stop buying fish and other seafood for the time being, even those caught in domestic waters, due to possible contamination. “I am substituting fish with tofu and other sources of vegetable protein,” she said.

Like Ahn, a growing number of Korean consumers have become wary of food items imported from the world’s third-largest economy, following a series of explosions at its Fukushima nuclear power plants.

The news of radioactive-contaminated spinach and milk produced near the plants has further fanned fears of radiation-tainted foods among local consumers.

Reflecting this, stores here say the sales of fresh Japanese pollack have plummeted over the past week, even though no radioactivity has been detected in Japanese-imported fishery goods.

However, despite growing consumer safety worriers, E-Mart, the country’s largest discount supermarket, said Monday that it will continue to market imported fish from Japan.

“Currently, we only import fresh pollack from Japan. A series of government safety inspections have found no radioactive residue on our imports. We will continue to sell the fish,” an E-Mart spokesman said. But he said the store may stop selling pollack if the ongoing nuclear crisis in Japan worsens.

Lotte Mart, which currently sells pollack, mackerel and cutlass fish imported from Japan, said it will stop offering fresh Japanese pollack from March 22.

“Due to growing public fears of radiation-contaminated foods imported from Japan, we will take imported pollack off our shelves. But we will keep selling mackerel and cutlass fish,” a Lotte Mart spokeswoman said.

The National Fisheries Products Quality Inspection Service has been inspecting all imported marine products from Japan since March 12.

Korea currently imports fish, as well as processed dairy goods from Japan. Fishery goods account for over 99 percent of its total inbound food-related shipments from Japan.

Facing increasing public health concerns over tainted Japanese food products, the Korean Food and Drug Administration said Monday that it will strengthen the inspection of all agricultural and fishery products imported from Japan to check whether they contain radioactive iodine or cesium.

When radioactive iodine enters the human body, it accumulates in the thyroid gland, which controls the production of hormones and the metabolism, and can cause cancer and other serious illnesses.