Health officials from South Korea, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, and the Philippines are beginning to
screen food imported from Japan for radiation, and several other Southeast Asian countries are expressing concern over the potential for contamination of soil and water that could affect food sources.
Part of the problem is the lack of resources we ourselves direct to
food from abroad: The FDA has a minuscule team of some 1,500 inspectors devoted to
food imports, a workforce too small to
screen more than a tiny fraction of the
food that arrives at U.S. ports each year for microbial pathogens or other disease - causing contaminants.