四成消費者注意食物產地來源避免放射性物質

Recently the Mainichi News on-line reported the following:

放射性物質:食品産地気にする人の４割が意識　消費者庁

毎日新聞　2013年03月11日　22時42分（最終更新　03月11日　23時06分）

　食品を買う時に産地を気にする人のうち、４割が「放射性物質が含まれていない食品を買いたいから」と考えていることが１１日、消費者庁が実施した意識調査で分かった。

　２月１４、１５日に被災県（岩手、宮城、福島、茨城）と主な消費地（さいたま市、千葉市、東京２３区、横浜市、名古屋市、大阪市、神戸市）の２０〜６０代の男女にインターネットでアンケートし、５１７６人が回答した。

　食品を買う時に産地を「気にする」「どちらかと言えば気にする」と答えた人は３５３１人。理由を尋ねたところ、４０．９％が「放射性物質が含まれていない食品を買いたいから」と答えた。この人たちに「特に産地を気にする食品」を挙げてもらったところ、野菜が８６．１％、米６７．３％、魚介類６３．４％だった。さらにどの地域の食品なら買うのをためらうか聞いたところ、福島産６９．５％、被災地を中心とした東北（福島・岩手・宮城）産は５３．３％だった。

　食品中の放射性物質の基準についての質問では「生涯食べ続けても安全なレベル」と考える人は２８．２％しかいなかった。

　放射性物質の基準は食品安全委員会の調査に基づき厚生労働省が定めている。消費者庁は「消費者にさらにリスク情報を正しく伝えたい」としている。

(試譯文)

In an opinion poll carried out by the Consumer Affairs Agency, it turned out on the 11th that when someone bought the food, for those who care about the place of production, 40 percent was out of the consideration of "would like to buy the food which contains no radioactive material".

A questionnaire survey was conducted on the Internet on February 14 and 15 to the men and women in their 20-60's living in the disaster stricken prefectures (Iwate, Miyagi, Fukushima, Ibaraki) and the other main consumer locations (Saitama, Chiba, Tokyo's 23 Ward, Yokohama, Nagoya, Osaka, Kobe); 5176 people had answered.

About the place of production, 3531 people answered that they “care”, "rather care" when he bought the food. When the reason was asked, 40.9% answered "since he would like to buy the food in which no radioactive material is contained". When these people were asked to mention "the food which he especially cares regarding the place of production", vegetables were 63.4%, fish and shellfishes 86.1% and rice 67.3%. Furthermore, about the area where the food was from, and whether they would hesitate to buy when they heard it, 69.5% would hesitate for the products from Fukushima, 53.3% for those from the northeast (Fukushima, Iwate, and Miyagi) centering on a stricken area.

On the question about the radioactive material standard in food, only 28.2% considered that "it is a safe level in eating for the whole life continuously".

Based on the investigation of the Food Safety Committee, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare had established the standard of the radioactive material. The Consumer Affairs Agency supposed that they "would like to give consumers additional risk-related information correctly".

Obviously the Japanese consumers are cautious about the food source having regard to the radioactive matters.