TAIPEI (Taiwan News) — Due to new safeguards, Taiwan will not see contaminated food from Japan entering the country, President Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) insisted Tuesday (Feb. 8), just hours after her government announced plans to lift the import ban on food from five prefectures affected by the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

The end of the import ban on food and agricultural products from the prefectures of Fukushima, Chiba, Gunma, Ibaraki, and Tochigi will not be total, as mushrooms and the meat of wild animals, including birds, will still be barred.

Health officials will conduct batch-by-batch border inspections, while importers will have to present certificates of origin and radiation inspection certificates. Mushrooms, seafood, and tea from adjacent regions will be subject to similar measures.

Tsai said the new standards were more stringent than those set by the United States, the European Union, and the international Codex Alimentarius commission, UDN reported. She also emphasized that apart from Taiwan, only China still bans food imports from Fukushima.

Last year’s referendums, which saw the rejection of a ban on the import of pork treated with the leanness drug ractopamine, proved that Taiwanese are prepared to accept international standards and join the global trade network, the president said. The Tsai administration hopes the end of the food import bans will improve the chances of Taiwan's membership in groups like the Comprehensive and Progressive Agreement for Trans-Pacific Partnership (CPTPP), in which Japan plays a major role.