Hong Kong and Macau: Starting from August 24th, imports of aquatic products from 10 prefectures in Japan will be banned. Xie Zhanhuan | Aquatic Products | Hong Kong
The Secretary for Environment and Ecology of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region Government, Xie Zhanhuan, announced today that the government has decided to ban the import of aquatic products from 10 cities and counties, including Tokyo, Fukushima, Chiba, Okinawa, Ibaraki, Gunma, Miyagi, Niigata, Nagano, and Saitama, starting from August 24th. This includes all live, frozen, refrigerated, dried or otherwise preserved aquatic products, sea salt, and unprocessed or unprocessed seaweed.
According to CCTV news, the Japanese government announced that it will discharge Fukushima nuclear contaminated water into the sea in the near future. The Macau SAR government expressed strong dissatisfaction with this on the 22nd. In order to ensure food safety and residents' health in Macau, the SAR government will take necessary measures to ban the import of fresh food, animal derived food, sea salt, and seaweed from 10 prefectures, including Fukushima Prefecture, Chiba Prefecture, Tochigi Prefecture, Ibaraki Prefecture, Gunma Prefecture, Miyagi Prefecture, Niigata Prefecture, Nagano Prefecture, Saitama Prefecture, and Tokyo, starting from August 24, 2023. This includes vegetables, fruits, milk and dairy products, aquatic products, meat and its products, poultry eggs, etc.
The Macau SAR government stated that Japan's decision to discharge nuclear contaminated water into the ocean without sufficient consultation with neighboring countries is extremely irresponsible. The SAR government is highly concerned about the incident, and the Municipal Services Department has maintained close contact with the General Administration of Customs and the Gongbei Customs. It has also established a notification mechanism with the Hong Kong Food Safety Centre.
The Macau Municipal Administration will also strengthen inspections of retail stores in the market, mainly targeting pre packaged foods imported from other parts of Japan that do not require inspection and quarantine, such as rice, seaweed, tea, snacks, etc., using handheld radiometers for testing and extracting food samples for radioactive nuclide testing. In order to enhance information transparency and strengthen science education, the Municipal Government will launch a special website on food safety for nuclear inspections starting from tomorrow. In addition to publishing daily radiation testing data, the website will also promote science to the society through graphic and text packages, posts, short films, and other means.