PLEASE READ!!! Dangerous Japanese Rice

- Never Stop Dreaming -

For those of you visiting southern Japan like regions in Kyushu which includes cities ranging from Osaka, Fukuoka and Kagoshima, please take a while to read this REALLY important news.

"Chinese products are relatively dangerous" is already passe to most people but this time round, it's Japanese Company Mikasa Foods based in Osaka that is rocking the local scene. Apparently this unscrupulous company bought defective, molded industrial rice from various sources and sold them to local companies as edible rice since 2004. Over a period of 4 years, rice, senbeis (rice crackers), shochu (Japanese rice wine) along with a string of other food products were made from these defective rice and sold in southern Japan.

Geez God knows how many people have eaten these chemically "Bin" laden products. To a certain extent, they are potentially as dangerous as the Chinese Gyozas Incident. Google "Mikasa Foods" and a while list should pop up.

Here is one such news report,

"Mikasa Foods Co. aggressively purchased government stocks of tainted rice from abroad that was intended for glue manufacturing to sell to companies that make rice-based products such as senbei crackers, shochu liquor and even miso paste.

In fact, the wholesale distributor bought as much as one-quarter of the industrial-use rice the government sold over the past five years, sources said.

According to farm ministry sources, Mikasa Foods, based in Osaka, is suspected of offloading 1,779 tons of industrial-use rice it bought between February 2004 and August 2008 for public consumption.

At a news conference Saturday, Mikasa Foods President Mitsuo Fuyuki admitted that he instructed officials at the company's factory in Chikuzen, Fukuoka Prefecture, to sell the contaminated rice for human consumption.

Fuyuki said the company realized it could reap big profits by selling the defective product for human consumption.

On Friday, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries disclosed that Mikasa Foods had sold rice that contained five times the standard residue level of methamidophos, an organophosphorous insecticide, or aflatoxin, a carcinogenic fungus.

The former is the same substance detected in tainted frozen gyoza imported from China.

The farm ministry sells industrial-use rice at one-tenth to one-15th of the price of rice for human consumption.

Mikasa Foods, which began recalling the rice on Aug. 29, has so far been able to track down only four to five tons.

The company sold rice contaminated with methamidophos to rice stores in Fukuoka and Kumamoto prefectures through wholesalers. The rice contaminated with aflatoxin was sold to shochu makers in Kagoshima and Kumamoto prefectures and other companies.

The rice with methamidophos apparently found its way into rice cakes and cookies.

The farm ministry plans to file complaints with the Osaka and Fukuoka prefectural police accusing Mikasa Foods of violating the Food Sanitation Law, which bans the sale of contaminated food.

The ministry thus far has refused to disclose the companies that bought the tainted rice on grounds that health problems are not a factor.

According to the farm ministry, the government sold about 7,400 tons of defective rice from April 2003 to August 2008. Of that amount, 1,779 tons, or 24 percent, was purchased by Mikasa Foods.

The percentage was the highest among the 17 companies that bought the defective rice during that period.

Mikasa Foods bought 800 tons of Chinese rice that contained five times the standard residue level of methamidophos in four auctions between November 2006 and May 2007.

The company paid a total of 7.12 million yen, or an average of 8.9 yen per kilogram.

Mikasa Foods also bought nine tons of U.S., Chinese or Vietnamese rice that was tainted with aflatoxin at about 40,000 yen, or an average of 3 to 5 yen per kilogram.

By comparison, imported rice for human consumption is generally sold for 80 yen per kilogram.

The government imports 770,000 tons of rice every year to meet requirements agreed to under the Uruguay Round of trade talks.(IHT/Asahi: September 8,2008)"
- Source: Asahi Simbun 2008/9/8 -