Hong Kong 'Loophole' May Have Flooded China With Radioactive Japanese Foods

www.zerohedge.com

And the 'incidents' just keep coming for Japan. Lax safety checks at Kwai Chung container terminal - the only sea entry point for food from overseas - have allowed banned imports from Japan to enter Hong Kong, according to Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan. As The South China Morning Post reports, radioactive contaminated food may have been entering the city unnoticed for years because of deficiencies in safety controls on fresh produce since the ban following the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in 2011.

Democratic Party lawmaker Helena Wong Pik-wan said, as The Soth China Morning Post reports, food safety surveillance was too relaxed at the Kwai Chung container terminal - the only sea entry point for food from overseas - as it relied heavily on the importer taking the initiative.

Radioactive contaminated food may have been entering the city unnoticed for years because of deficiencies in safety controls on fresh produce brought in by sea.

Food imported by sea does not go through routine checks at the dock as the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department has no food inspection checkpoint at the terminal. Food imported by air, however, is tested for radiation at the airport.

Food imported by sea is inspected by health officers only when it is moved to storage areas by importers, according to the department. This would allow some food importers to avoid inspection, Wong said.

She cited a case in January, when 10 boxes of Japanese carrots from Chiba, one of five prefectures from which imports of vegetables and fruits have been banned since the Fukushima nuclear power plant incident in 2011, entered the city by sea.

One box was sold and two other boxes were found for sale in the Yau Ma Tei wholesale fruit market when food safety officers acted on a complaint.

"It has exposed... loopholes in our food safety system," Wong said. "We do not know if there is more banned food being sold in the city that has not been discovered by the government."

The loophole is significant...

Since importers are only required to complete the import declarations within 14 days after the importation under the Import and Export Ordinance, "some small importers" would not bother to alert food inspectors and simply sell their perishable produce before health officers obtained the details of the declaration, a source said.

"If the health officers want to conduct checks after getting the details of the import declaration, but the imported food is already distributed in the market for sale, how can the health officers trace the food and conduct checks?" the source said.

Hong Kong imported 15,093 tonnes of vegetables and fruit from Japan by sea last year, about 0.8 per cent of total vegetables and fruit imports by sea.

Since March 2011, the department had stepped up surveillance of fresh produce imported from Japan such as milk, vegetables and fruits, to examine radiation levels, a spokesman said.

Kowloon Fruit and Vegetable Merchants Association vice-chairman Cheung Chi-cheung said importers had to notify the department for inspection whenever they picked up the goods. He also did not comment on whether there might be a loophole in the inspection system.

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Once again it seems Japanese falsehoods are at the center of another potential international issue... no we are not devaluing our currency... no Fukushima is safe... no radiation leaks are under control... no the economy is proceeding on a moderate pace of recovery... no the US alliance is not antagonistic, we are pacifists... and now no the food we sent you is not radioactive...