A little more than 10 million bags of new rice harvested in Fukushima Prefecture last year all cleared radiation tests mandated by the prefectural government after the 2011 nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co.'s Fukushima Daiichi plant. It was the first time since the disaster that every bag of newly harvested Fukushima rice was found to show less than the maximum standard of 100 becquerels of radioactive cesium per kilogram set under the Food Sanitation Act.

In cooperation with local agricultural cooperatives and other partners, the prefectural government has made a pitch for measures to reduce the effect of radioactive cesium such as the use of potassium chloride, which prevents the grain from absorbing the isotope, and for deep plowing of soil followed by reverse plowing. Prefectural officials believe these efforts to curb the absorption of radioactive cesium as well as the natural attenuation of the isotope are behind the favorable outcome of tests.


http://www.fukushimaminponews.com/news.html?id=613