*5.3.1. Vegetables*

Leafy vegetables were, besides milk, the most contaminated food. Depositions from washouts on spinach and salad cultures happened just before harvest. Radioiodine level reached almost 4000 Bq/kg in spinach. Therefore, it was advised that small children, pregnant women, and nursing women should not consume this kind of food. The investigation of mother's milk showed considerable amounts of radioiodine (up to 35 Bq/L). We tried to reduce the contam‐ ination on salads with washings but with only poor success. In May 1986, leafy vegetables were most affected by radioiodine (131I and 132I): radioiodine was 65% of the measured total dose. Radiocaesium (134Cs and 137Cs) was 25% and other short-lived radionuclides, such as 103Ru, 140Ba, 140La, and 99Mo, gave approximately 10% to the total dose. We noticed many violations of the limit values for radioiodine and radiocaesium (24 and 10 violations for baby food from a total of 40 samples analysed). This survey focused on food with higher radiation levels as a screening before the γ-analyses were done. The investigation of deep-frozen vegetables did not show any elevated radiation. These products were produced before 1986 [46]. After 2010, we started up again with controls of leafy and root vegetables. The contami‐ nation level was low and caused by the fallout from the bombs. Radiocaesium is normally below the detection limit of 0.1 Bq/kg. Radiostrontium is detectable in small amounts of 0.05 to 0.5 Bq/kg [47].
