No more SUSHI ? Say it isn’t so. Radiation Concerns and Sushi

We have all seen the news and Japan is struggling to contain radiation leaking from one of its nuclear reactors. What impact will this radiation have on us here in the States? That is the million dollar question. Recent radio and television reports say that handheld Geiger counters which measure radiation are sold out everywhere. I did a quick check online and even geigercounters.com has a big note on the front page of their site that as of March 17th orders have out-stripped their supply. Ok, that is a little scary!

Another report I heard a few days ago was about how the Food and Drug Administration came out with a report that they are “considering increasing the monitoring of imported food and raw ingredients made in Japan”. They did go on to say that there is no risk to the U.S. food supply but still this really makes you think about what you are eating. I love sushi but not at the risk or exposing myself to radiation or cancer. The problem is that is it is not just the sushi that could be contaminated but also the rice that is in many of the rolls as well as the seaweed that wraps the rolls. Many foreign hotels are not even serving sushi at the moment because their current supply was from Japan.

I guess we will all have to wait and see how this all plays out and whether or not Sushi will stopped being served here in the United States. The good news is that experts say the risk to Americans is low because Japan only accounts for 4% of American food imports.

There may be even bigger issues looming because concerns have also been raised about non-food items from Japan ranging from cars to electronic components. The FDA has updated their report as of March 23 .