Australia's food standards regulator has ordered a halt to Japanese food imports, such as sauces and seaweed, amid rising radiation concerns.
As of Wednesday, the Australian Quarantine and Inspection Service will implement a holding order on all foods from the Fukushima, Gunma, Ibaraki and Tochigi prefectures.
Their major production is in milk, milk products, fresh fruit and vegetables, and both fresh and frozen seaweed and seafood.
Food Standards Australia New Zealand (FSANZ) said the holding order was only a precaution, given Australia did not import any milk or fresh food from Japan. The risk of irradiated food arriving here from Japan was negligible.
Australia's main imports were sauces and seaweed products.
The move is in line with the United States, which restricted some dairy and vegetable imports earlier on Wednesday.
Europe is being urged to do the same, while Japan itself has stopped some of its own food exports from areas surrounding the damaged Fukushima nuclear power plant.
Tests have revealed vastly elevated levels of radioactive iodine and caesium.
But Australians have been given the go-ahead to buy Japanese foods currently on the shelves, given they were imported before the earthquake and tsunami.
A spokeswoman from the federal government's health department told AAP the holding order was indefinite.
She said FSANZ would continue to liaise with the relevant agencies, including AQIS, Australia's nuclear agency ARPANSA and Customs, and would monitor foods from the affected prefectures.