Committed Effective Dose by Food Category

Committed Effective Dose by Food Category

Type Natural
radionuclides
Artificial
radionuclides
Vegetable 0.029 0.00049
Fruit 0.0017 0.00011
Bread, noodles 0.0043 0.000063
Rice, wheat 0.010 0.00017
Beans, peas, sesame seeds 0.0066 0.00058
Meats 0.0071 0.000052
Seafood 0.58 0.00053
Seaweed 0.019 0.000041
Type Natural
radionuclides
Artificial
radionuclides
Mushroom 0.0038 0.00046
Potatoes 0.0028 0.000052
Egg 0.0028 0.0000062
Milk, dairy products 0.0048 0.00014
Confectionaries 0.0014 0.000071
Drinks 0.072 0.0011
Condiments, spices 0.045 0.00017
Natural radionuclides 210Pb,210Po,226Ra,232Th,238U
Artificial radionuclides 90Sr,137Cs,239+240Pu
Radioactivity survey data Environmental radioactivity level survey (1989-2005)
Food sample radioactivity level survey (1989-2005)
Food intake data National Health and Nutrition Survey 2005, Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare

Note: The calculation results are subject to change without prior notice associated with changes to the data used for the calculation.

Comparison with Various Radiation Sources

Reference: Nuclear Energy 2003 (Agency for Natural Resources and Energy, Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry)

Radiation Dose from Daily Food

For this survey, we request five households in each prefecture to prepare an extra portion of food and drinks they consume in a day and use that as analysis samples. This allows us to get a picture of the typical radiation dose (committed effective dose) we receive from our daily food.

Committed effective dose received from daily food (1989-2005)

Nuclide name Effective dose coefficient (*1)
(mSv/Bq)
Average radioactivity concentration
(Bq/person·day)
Number of detections Number of samples Committed effective dose
(mSv)
Sr-90 0.000028 0.056 2619 2834 0.00057
Cs-137 0.000013 0.048 4236 5551 0.00023
Th-232 0.00023 0.00079 69 70 0.000066
U-238 0.000045 0.012 70 70 0.00020

(*1): From ICRP Publ. 72

Committed effective dose(mSv)=Effective dose coefficient(mSv/Bq)×Average radioactivity concentration (Bq/person·day)×365 days

For this calculation, Sr-90 and Cs-137 were selected as the representatives of artificial radionuclides and Th-232 and U-238 as the representatives of natural radionuclides.