



Green tea is known for its many medicinal purposes. The Chinese have known about the medicinal benefits of green tea since ancient times, using it to treat everything from headaches to depression. While green tea has so many healthy benefits, consumers need to be wary if their tea comes from certain parts of Japan.







According to Japan’s Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, several of Japan’s tea-making regions are being banned from exporting their green tea harvests due to high levels of radiation.

So far, some of the banned areas include: Tochigi, Chiba, Kanagawa, and Ibaraki.

Green tea plantations were first highlighted as suffering from potential radiation contamination last month following the results of sample tests in Kanagawa prefecture. The authorities discovered around 570 becquerels of caesium per kilogram in leaves grown in the city of Minamiashigara – compared to the legal limit of 500 – and started a recall of tea products.

Tea leaves are the latest agricultural products in Japan to be affected by problems surrounding the still-damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant.

From milk to spinach, a raft of items have fallen under the spotlight due to radiation fears although Japanese authorities have assured the public and its export nations that it is strictly regulating products.

While it seems that areas around the nuclear crisis will never recover, tens of thousands of farmers have lost their livelihood due to soil contamination and food safety fears.

Just another serious blow on the global food supply that seems to be diminishing.

Source: natural society

Image Credit: ~Mers