Hikari Re: the Nuclear Disaster and their Products

[cybermeez]

I wrote to Hikari's US office over the weekend expressing concern regarding the safety of their products in the wake of the nuclear power plant meltdowns. Their Algae Wafers are a favorite of all my loaches and they seem to be unwilling to accept any substitute. So, needless to say, I've been concerned. I got a response from Hikari this morning:

Thank you for taking the time to contact us and for your support of our products. The factories which produce the products we sell in the US are quite far south from the nuclear reactor issue. (more than 400 miles away) No raw materials are used from any of the impacted areas and as a safeguard we are taking a number of precautionary measures to verify no raw material or atmospheric contamination has occurred or does occur in the future. We can assure all of our supporters that no quality issue exists. If there are any other questions or concerns you have, please contact us again at your convenience. We very much appreciate your concern and your support!
The Hikari Customer Service Team

I'm a skeptic by nature, so I hope what they say is true. Just to be safe I've ordered a 2.2 lb bag of algae wafers in case (before) their production process becomes contaminated or the US government bans the imports from Japan. During the Hoof and Mouth epidemic in Europe a few years back the USDA banned all European animal products at one point. It became impossible to get Tetra products for a period of time and my loaches were big fans of their TetraMin Tropical Crisps.

Robin

[JonasBygdemo]

Great news! Like yours, our fishes love Hikari so it wouldn't make them happy if they stopped shipments

[NancyD]

Thanks for looking into the issue, Robin, I hadn't thought of it. I've been trying to downsize my foods for an upcoming move but Hikari are among my & my fish's favs, although Ken's Foods are also high on my list too. Aren't some of Hikari frozen foods irradiated? I never really considered what it might mean.

[cybermeez]

Thanks for looking into the issue, Robin, I hadn't thought of it. I've been trying to downsize my foods for an upcoming move but Hikari are among my & my fish's favs, although Ken's Foods are also high on my list too. Aren't some of Hikari frozen foods irradiated? I never really considered what it might mean.

Irradiated foods aren't radioactive. They are simply passed through something akin to an x-ray machine which kills off any bacteria etc. that might be present in the food. No radiation lingers within the food just like no radiation lingers in your body after you get an x-ray.

The isotopes in the fallout from the nuclear plants are molecules that are radioactive in and of themselves. They get into the air, ground water, ocean and soil where they are consumed by plants and animals, all the while they remain radioactive. Those plants and animals and the products produced from them - such as vegetables and milk - then become radioactive. That's how the radiation from the nuclear plants makes it into the food chain of both humans and pets.

In order for Hikari's foods to truly be "clean", they'd have to get their ingredients from outside Japan and the algae would likely have to be cultured in indoor pools.