One leading researcher says it will take 'decades' for the controls to no longer be necessary. She said all meat had to be destroyed in the first year following the accident. But even now in 2019, animals in 37 Norwegian municipalities are subject to radiation testing and control before they can be slaughtered. It's scary,' sheep farmer Laila Hoff from Hattfjelldal told Norwegian state broadcaster NRK. The Chernobyl accident shows that our food production is vulnerable. 'Who would have thought that a small northern Norwegian mountain village could be hit by a nuclear accident in Europe.