Although two years have passed since the nuclear power plant accident, Japanese people are still concerned about the radioactive contamination of food. For the purpose of contributing to an understanding about the risk of such contamination, we have overviewed reports and data published by both public and private institutions. The amounts of radioactive cesium in foods are extremely smaller than those of 40K in foods, irrespective of the item and harvesting locality. The degrees of internal exposure and risk derived from the contamination of food with radioactive cesium are less significant as compared with those of external exposure in areas at relatively high dose rates, radioactive hot spots. Highly contaminated foods are strictly controlled and are not marketed. It is concluded that the levels of radioactive contamination of marketed foods are much lower than those that bring about health hazard.
