Contaminated beef served in Gifu school lunches
GIFU —
Gifu prefectural authorities said Friday that beef thought to be contaminated with radioactive material has been served in children’s school lunches in 52 schools throughout the city of Gifu. City authorities told a news conference that mincemeat from 14 head of cattle was used in croquettes served with children’s school lunches, and that the serial number of one of the cows matches that of an animal believed to be contaminated.
The contamination is thought to have come from cesium-tainted straw fed to the animal. According to authorities, no straw remains at the farm that provided the cattle, meaning the level of contamination cannot be measured. In a statement, the school health board assured parents that the level of radiation was very low. In total, around 23,000 contaminated croquettes were made.
Order by Time Order by Popularity
22 Comments
Login to comment
1
mitoguitarman
This article should definitely be in the "Crime" section. Someone should be held criminally responsible for this negligent act!
-1
Utrack
This is criminal, J Govt did not trace the radiation dispersal from Daiichi as an ongoing event at all. The people most vulnerable are Children and Yet they are served Fried Cesium for lunch. This is not the only School and it NOT the only intake of cesium there what about the Milk. the Vegetables and everything else. Truly Irresponsible to serve kids Poison and say Oh it was a low dose, Really a low dose you say but the article states( According to authorities, no straw remains at the farm that provided the cattle, meaning the level of contamination cannot be measured.)
-2
herefornow
And the impact of the government's incompetence just continues to spread.
-1
sfjp330
This problem is not just for children. This ongoing problem is difficult for all people that are living near Fukushima and surrounding areas of things that they don't know. Why can't the goverment provide better scientific analysis data and prognosis from the known contaminated food items? How serious is this for long term health problem? What are we missing? The J-goverment's PR is the same old vague and imcomplete information this is not acceptable. they try to provide people the assurance but this is not enough.
-1
Spidapig24
The Japanese government and officials continue to spread confidence with their superb handling of this situation. NOT!
How can the people of Japan sit back and not get upset about this and demand to know what the government is doing about it apart from their pathetic requests not to ship the meat, their lame plan to buy and burn any meat left. All to little to late. And when are we going to hear about other contaminated foods, this cannot be purely limited to beef.
-1
ambrosia
As always, the government acts in a reactionary manner. Things are done only after something happens. Is no one in the government capable of being proactive and anticipating potential problems before they happen?
1
Osakadaz
not only in Gifu either and not only beef. My city FINALLY removed beef from the lunch menu at the daycare centre...still using vegies from Nagano and milk from MEGMILK (Yukijirushi) which blends Fukushima milk...one day and one scandal at a time,I guess.
-8
Skeptical Hippo
So your kid has been eating contaminated beef for almost 5 months now? You must be pissed!
-4
Asagao
Look how long it took them to take dolphin meat out of the school lunches in Wakayama. That was only stopped after those ruddy annoying dolphin huggers analysed the meat and proved that the levels of Mercury were toxic. The local government tried to deny and rubbish it, but only when the parents complained, they stopped. Another problem is the school lunch system. The local government has "special relationships" with food suppliers and farmers and buy bulk. They then make lunches in a central location and deliver to all schools in the area. Apart from the fact that an opportunity for corruption exists in this system, the biggest fear is if one product is toxic, every single child in that region will be poisoned.
-4
Osakadaz
so anyway, the Japanese government has introduced new testing procedures for beef. They will firstly use a Scintillating device to do a general scan on the cows/meat http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scintillation_counter and any sample that shows more than 250 Bq/kg will be given more intensive testing. At present the testing takes 1 hr per cow so they don"t have the time, staff or testing machines to test all samples. http://www3.nhk.or.jp/news/html/20110730/k10014570031000.html
-1
marcelito
Well since the BOE reassured the parents it must all be just fine and rosy then... It was reported today the govt is spending a million bucks to monitor and rebuff " incorrect and negative " info about the Fukushima.. How about spending some more money to monitor accumulation of all this " very low" and " no immediate threat to human health" food that the kids and the rest of us are eating ... A bit here and a bit there - It does add up right? Priorities...
0
chewitup
What is meat and produce from Fukushima doing in Gifu anyway? I mean Geezus!
I am pretty far from Fukushima, and the place I shop had tomatoes and other stuff from Fukushima, thankfully, off to one side and away from all the other stuff. But why? Why did that stuff ever travel to any rural destination that surely has enough produced locally?
Tokyo I can understand, but not the sticks. All I can imagine is that stuff got shuffled so that Tokyo would not get the Fukushima stuff, but rather what should have gone to Gifu.
-1
warnerbro
The national bureaucracy and parliament are completely ignoring this issue and placing all responsibility with local governments that haven't a clue how to respond. I read that the American military gave some dosimeters to one of the most heavily hit towns early on and nobody in the city hall could read English so they were not used. Don't think for a moment that this is the only place where caesium is being fed to school children, it's just one place where somebody was honest enough to admit it. This must be one of those "harmful rumours" the government is paying a handsome sum to quash.
0
Utrack
Taking a step back and looking at the situation in Japan. Is Japan Governed by Suicidal Cult Leaders or something? I mean with all this mass poisoning of the population that's been going on for months and the ignoring the radiation dispersal of Daiichi not bothering to track it to penpoint where radiation fallout may be most damaging. Daiichi is not classified as an immediate threat, floods are obviously an immediate threat. But so is Daiichi, this NPP is effecting the whole country, because J Govt is not taking steps to Not let Daiichi effect the whole country. Spread the poison, mass contamination and dribble out the truth slowly has been the J Govt's answer to Daiichi.
-1
lordmanji
i wonder what are people actually DOING? have they taken precautions in their own home and lifestyle? have they lodged complaints with authorities or their representative? for some, if living in japan is so intolerable, what are they still doing there? waiting for the next shoe to drop? hate to break it to you but that happened the day of the twin tsunami/multiple nuclear reactor disasters. it is a fact that there is radiation that's contaminated the air, water, ground, animals and food in fukushima and miyagi all the way past tokyo.
0
BurakuminDes
Awful news. Let's hope parents start making their own lunches for their kids to take to school, as is done in many other countries. Sure, it would be a massive shock to the system, I'm sure many people would claim it just can't be done. But checking the source of food yourself is safer than just relying on the J-govt. and their schools. Pretty sure I never copped any radiation from the sandwich Mum made me every day!
1
oberst
The only explanation is that the J-Government intends the whole nation to " suffer " with the folks of Fukushima as a way to unify the country. This is taking " sharing the wealth " to a whole new level.
1
Osakadaz
there is a new system they intend to get running by August. They know more than 3000 cows ate contaminated hay but have only managed to test 400. This new system will supposedly let you know how the beef you bough fared (although probably after it has been consumed in some cases) by entering the code on the pack in the supermarket.
You may want to write this down; 規制値を超えた牛は「回収対象」( this will show if the beef must be returned and disposed of)、汚染稲わらを食べた疑いのある牛は「追跡検査対象」(this will show if the cow is believed to have eaten the Cesium hay) 、汚染稲わらを食べた可能性がない牛は「回収対象外」(this will show if the cow is not suspected of eating Cesium Hay) と表示される。
of course this traceability has actually been in place since the BSE scandal...rice traceability also in place since the Mikasa rice scandal...the Japanese just decided it was more expedient to make money than do things right.
0
Osakadaz
oh,so sorry..after all that I forgot the link.
https://www.id.nlbc.go.jp/top.html
-1
herefornow
Osakadaz -- has now been reported that Iwate Prefecture has been instructed to cease all shipments of beef. So there are now three prefectures facing the issue. Expect more to come.
1
tokyokawasaki
If this story had been about a restaurant serving dodgy yakitori the places would have been shut down and it would be all over the news. But because it government run schools the attitude seems to be shoganai. The governments policy of policing the and controlling exports of ALL FOOD from the contaminated areas is absolutely disgraceful. They should all be charged with professional negligence.
Back to top