A group campaigning to help prevent global warming has demanded the Food and Drug Administration disclose the name of the importer of fish from Fukushima and of the Japanese restaurants in Bangkok serving seafood from the area worst hit by the 2011 nuclear disaster.
Srisuwan Janya, chairman of the Stop Global Warming Association, said on Tuesday the FDA must protect the rights of consumers by ordering restaurants serving Fukushima fish to make that information available to their customers, so they could decide whether to eat it or not.
The association’s move follows a report on the website of the Japan Times newspaper that a shipment of fish from Fukushima landed in Thailand last week. It was the prefecture’s first export of fish since the March 2011 meltdown of the nuclear power plant damaged by a tsunami, and release of large amounts of radiation.
The fish would be served in 12 Japanese restaurants in Bangkok, the website reported.
Mr Srisuwan said Thai people who liked eating Japanese food were being put at risk of caesium contamination.
He wanted to know whether the Fisheries Department and the FDA had inspected every fish from the nuclear disaster-affected area before allowing the shipment through.
Section 61 of the 2017 constitution clearly stipulated that the state must have effective measures and mechanisms in place to protect the rights of consumers, including the right to information relating to their safety.
The approval of the importation of seafood from Fukushima, where there might still be substances that posed a health risk to consumers, amounted to an unlawful use of authority, Mr Srisuwan said.
Fisheries deputy director-general Umaporn Pimolbutr said the department was advised that about 100kg of flatfish and 30kg of sole had been imported from Fukushima on March 2, and the fish was supplied to several Japanese restaurants in Bangkok.
The FDA had inspected the shipment for radioactive contamination, she said. The fish was legally imported.
She advised diners not to panic about the matter. Officials strictly checked imports of fish from all countries.