The EU has eased feed and food import restrictions on 11 Japanese prefectures originally placed in the wake of the Fukushima nuclear accident. Yamanashi, Shizuoka, Gunma, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Miyagi, Saitama, Tokyo, Iwate, Chiba and Kanagawa restrictions have been eased; however, the restrictions on imports coming from the Fukushima prefecture will remain until March 31, 2014.
The EU originally imposed import restrictions on feed and food products from Japan’s radiation-contaminated areas on March 24, 2011. The EU has been relaxing import restrictions from Japanese prefectures based on periodic review since then, regarding any new releases of the hazardous matter to the environment. The European Commission had underlined that for a number of reasons, food safety risks from the nuclear accident in Japan are considerably low in the EU.