WHO says Japanese food is safe

The World Health Organization said Monday that spinach and milk found to have been contaminated with radiation in Japan amid the country's nuclear emergency were safe to eat and drink.

"It should be stressed that short term exposure to levels of radiation seen with the contaminated spinach will pose no short-term health risk," the UN health agency's Asia Pacific spokesman, Peter Cordingley, told AFP.

"The same with the milk, it doesn't pose a health risk."

Cordingley said the discovery of contaminated spinach as far away as 120 kilometres (75 miles) from the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant was "unexpected".

But he said the Japanese authorities had responded vigorously to the developments and the WHO did not believe there was a need for the public to panic.

He said the WHO was monitoring the situation carefully, and that the Japanese health ministry had been transparent in providing the organisation with information about contaminated food.

kma/slb