CHIBA — A Tokyo-based cooperative has delivered spinach grown in the town of Tako, Chiba Prefecture, to consumers in three eastern prefectures despite a government ban on shipments due to concerns about radiation, the Chiba Prefectural Government said Thursday.
Some of the 74 lots of Tako-grown spinach - home-delivered by Pal System Consumers Cooperative Union to 70 households in Gunma, Saitama and Chiba prefectures - had already been consumed, it said.
A dealer in the town of Shibayama, which also has vegetable fields in Tako, shipped the spinach in question as part of 380 lots on April 10 and has said it did not know of the shipment ban, prompting the local government to issue a verbal warning, it said.
Pal System, a co-op association formed by nine consumer cooperatives in Tokyo and nine surrounding prefectures, claimed it thought there were no problems with the spinach shipped, as the dealer was based in Shibayama, but was alerted to the possibility of a problem through documents submitted by the dealer.
It tried to exclude Tako products from its delivery service, but failed to entirely prevent their delivery, it said, apologizing for the trouble, while adding it had detected small amounts of radioactive iodine and cesium far below the allowable levels in some produce.
On March 25, the Chiba Prefectural Government urged producers and dealers to voluntarily refrain from shipping spinach grown in Tako.
On April 4, the central government imposed a ban due to radiation concerns on the shipment of spinach grown in the town as well as the neighboring city of Katori.
The government also banned at the time the shipment of spinach, parsley, celery, bok choy, garland chrysanthemum and "sanchu" Korean lettuce from the city of Asahi, also in the prefecture.
On April 13, major supermarket chain Aeon Co. said it had sold sanchu leaves produced in Asahi at its retail stores for nine days through April 7, despite the shipment ban imposed after the prefecture directed that the produce be voluntarily kept off the market.
Aeon said at that time that even if consumed, the produce posed no threat to human health because the amount of radioactive material found on it was below the allowable limit
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