On Aug. 24, Japan began discharging treated water from the Fukushima nuclear plant into the Pacific Ocean. On the same day, the Hong Kong government announced a ban on seafood imports from 10 Japanese prefectures and increased radiation testing of Japanese imports, which has been in effect for a week. On Aug. 31, the Hong Kong government announced that the Center for Food Safety and the Agriculture, Fisheries and Conservation Department had conducted radiation tests on a total of 1,288 Japanese food samples, including 662 samples of seafood and related products, seaweed and sea salt, and 400 samples of local seafood, all of which passed the radiation tests.
In addition, the Centre for Food Safety conducted radiation tests on 63 imported Japanese food samples categorized as “seafood and related products, seaweed, and sea salt” from noon Aug. 30 to noon Aug. 31 and found that none exceeded safety standards.
Simultaneously, the Agriculture, Fisheries, and Conservation Department tested the radiation levels of 50 local seafood samples, all of which passed the tests.
The Hong Kong Observatory has also intensified its monitoring of the environmental radiation levels in local waters. So far, no abnormal readings have been detected.
In response to Japan’s decision to begin discharging treated water from the Fukushima nuclear power plant into the Pacific Ocean on Aug. 24, the Hong Kong government imposed an import ban on seafood products from ten prefectures, including Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Tochigi, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano, and Saitama. This ban covers all live, frozen, chilled, dried, or preserved seafood products, sea salt, and unprocessed and processed seaweed. The government also announced daily radiation test results for Japanese food imports.@
