Strengthening Radiation Inspection of Imported Seafood at Garak Market

Seoul Citizens Focus on Alleviating Radiation Concerns over Japanese Seafood

[Asia Economy Reporter Park Jong-il] The Seoul Agricultural & Marine Products Corporation (President Kim Kyung-ho) has strengthened the simple radiation inspection of imported seafood traded at Garak Market since the 26th of last month, and the results are being disclosed on the corporation's website.

Amid the recent social controversy over the discharge of radioactive contaminated water from the Fukushima Nuclear Power Plant in Japan, citizens' concerns about radiation contamination in seafood are intensifying day by day.

To dispel these concerns and ensure the safety of seafood traded at Garak Market, the corporation has decided to expand the simple radiation inspection, which was previously conducted only at the seafood wholesale market, to the Garak Mall seafood market frequently visited by citizens.

Radiation inspection of imported seafood is conducted in two stages: first, the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety inspects all items at the customs clearance stage and publishes the results on its website; second, the Seoul Metropolitan Government conducts additional detailed radiation inspections on 150 high-consumption food items at the distribution stage, and these results are also disclosed.

The corporation operates a system where imported seafood brought into Garak Market is inspected using portable simple radiation detectors, and if the standard value (CPS†3.0) is exceeded, distribution is immediately halted and a detailed inspection is requested from the Seoul Institute of Health and Environment.

From 2013 to 2020, the corporation conducted a total of 21,669 simple radiation inspections, with no non-compliance cases found.

CPS stands for Counts Per Second, a unit representing radiation measurement values, indicating the number of radiation signals emitted per second.

Kim Seung-ro, head of the Distribution Formation Team, stated, “Considering the recent rising concerns about imported seafood, we plan to do our best in radiation inspections to alleviate citizens' worries about radiation in seafood.”

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.