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UAE regulates Japan food over fears 
of radiation

DUBAI — The Ministry of Environment and Water on Thursday decided to ban and regulate import of food items from Japan to ensure the public health safety.

The decision banned the import of all fresh food items such as vegetables, fruits, dairy products, fish, seafood, meat and the food items whose validity duration is less than two weeks.

It allows imports of food items from Japan whose validity duration is more than two weeks except fresh food items with condition of presenting the radiation contamination-free certificate endorsed by the Japanese authorities.

The decision follows reports from the World Food Programme and other competent authorities on the radiation leakage in Japan.

Radioactive traces found

Meanwhile, Singapore said on Thursday that “radioactive contaminants” had been found in four samples of vegetables from Japan and expanded a block on food imports from the disaster-hit country.

“Radioactive contaminants have been detected in four samples of vegetables from Japan,” the city-state’s food regulator said.

“The contaminated samples were imported from the affected prefectures of Tochigi and Ibaraki, as well as Chiba and Ehime which are outside the affected areas,” the Agri-Food and Veterinary Authority of Singapore added.

It said there was “no cause for alarm” since an adult would need to consume 3.5 kilos of the affected vegetables to receive a level of radiation exposure similar to that generated by one X-ray.
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