The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) has removed an article and podcast titled "More Countries Ban Import of Japanese Food" from its website, claiming that it was wrongly republished.

On Sep. 4, WSJ noted in its Corrections & Amplifications section that the article was "incorrectly dated" and was an "erroneous republication of a Dow Jones Newswires article from 12 years ago."

The correction notice read:

"The Wall Street Journal on Sept. 4, 2023, removed from its website an article incorrectly dated Aug. 24, 2023, which reported that several countries had detected radioactive contamination in Japanese food exports. The article was an erroneous republication of a Dow Jones Newswires article from 12 years ago that was accurate at the time but is now outdated. A version of the original article remains on WSJ.com with its March 25, 2011, time stamp."

On Aug. 24, the WSJ article reported that Singapore banned food from two Japanese prefectures and found radioactive samples in four samples of vegetable imported from Japan.

However, the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) rebutted the WSJ podcast's false claims, saying:

"The WSJ podcast has referred to a media release by the former Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) in 2011. This has since been overtaken by events."

The podcast was referring to the AVA's media release on Mar. 25, 2011, which occurred two weeks after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in Japan.

Since 2020, SFA has lifted the ban on the import of all food items from Fukushima prefecture.

SFA said that it adopts a science-based approach towards assessing food safety risks.

Food imported into Singapore is subjected to its surveillance and monitoring regime, which includes radiation surveillance and enforcement actions will be taken should any food imports be found to be unsafe or unsuitable for consumption, SFA noted.

The latest updates on imported food from Fukushima can be found on the Ministry of Sustainability and the Environment site here.

The original WSJ article can be found at this link.

Top image from Wikimedia Commons and Ella Olsson/Pexels.