Regulatory Values for Food and Water

Stricter regulatory values are applied to drinking water than to foods.

The objective of food regulatory values is to maintain the safety of the public by ensuring that contaminated food does not circulate in the marketplace. Note that these standards are set to ensure that the annual internal exposure dose from the ingestion of food falls below 1.0 mSv. The current value is set at approximately 1/10th the Codex Alimentarius Commission (an international intergovernmental agency established in 1963 by FAO and WHO for the purpose of protecting consumers’ health and maintaining equitable food commerce), EU food circulation standards, and the American standards, which is a very strict level. The regulatory value for bottled water was previously the same as for food, but at present a value of 10 Bq/kg, the same as for tap water, is applied.
Some citizens have voiced concerns about radioactive accumulation. This refers to concerns that radioactive substances taken into the body are not metabolized, but are rather deposited there and continue to accumulate. In particular, many people hold the mistaken belief that in bones and muscle tissue, cellular regeneration does not occur, so please provide them with the correct information, in order to reassure them.