Monitoring of Environmental Radioactivity in Foodstuff in Fiji

This study was conducted to measure natural environmental radioactivity level and to compute the presence of radionuclides in the foodstuff consumed in Fiji. It is the first attempt in Fiji to investigate the presence of radionuclides and to evaluate their concentration in commonly used local and imported food items. The present study concentrates on seven vegetables, three fruits and two nuts. NaI (Tl) detector system was used to measure radioactive nuclides. The presence of radionuclides: 241Am, 137Cs, 60Co, 40K and 235U have been detected. It has been observed that the range on these radioactive nuclides lies in the range of0.08-6.0 Bq. Kg^ (-1), 0.07-22 Bq. Kg^ (-1), 10.1-47 Bq. Kg^ (-1), 47-210 Bq. Kg^ (-1) and0.019-29 Bq. Kg^ (-1), respectively.