<Quote> [The Japan Times]
The farm ministry will conduct radiation tests on samples of rice grown at 40,000 locations in 17 prefectures in 2012, more than 10 times as many as last year, ministry officials said Thursday.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries will increase the number of samples for the test as government-set allowable limits of radioactive cesium contained in rice have been toughened since April, such as a ban on shipments of rice containing 100 becquerels per kilogram, the officials said.
The test for this year will mainly cover locations where more than 50 becquerels per kg were detected in samples of rice harvested in 2011 and their surrounding areas.
Samples will be collected from all rice-producing households in the selected locations.
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Iori Mochizuki