Head of Osaka rice miller admits involvement in sale of tainted rice

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Head of Osaka rice miller admits involvement in sale of tainted rice

OSAKA, Sept. 6 KYODO Mikasa Foods head admits involvement in sale of tainted rice Mitsuo Fuyuki, president of rice miller Mikasa Foods, holds a news conference in Osaka on... The president of an Osaka-based rice miller said Saturday his company began disguising non-edible tainted rice as edible and selling it five or six years ago under his instruction to help overcome unfavorable business conditions. ''I sincerely apologize for causing great trouble and concerns among people,'' said Mitsuo Fuyuki, president of Mikasa Foods, during a press conference.

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Tainted Chinese rice sold for making 'shochu,' crackers in Japan
Friday 05th September, 03:10 PM JST

TOKYO —
A rice products company in Osaka sold imported rice from China and other countries that was tainted with higher-than-allowed levels of pesticide residue and a carcinogenic substance for edible use, such as in Japanese distilled alcoholic beverages and rice crackers, along with products made from the rice, the farm ministry said Friday. The Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry ordered the Osaka-based company, Mikasa Foods, to collect the rice and processed products.

The imported rice in question, totaling about 300 tons, was sold to the company on condition it be used for non-edible purposes due to high levels of pesticide residue and a toxic material called aflatoxin. Mikasa Foods sold part of the aflotoxin-tainted rice for use to make ‘‘shochu’’ distilled alcoholic beverages, along with food products made from the rice. Some portion of the rice imported from China and sold to Mikasa Foods contained a toxic organophosphate pesticide called methamidophos, which was also found in imported frozen-dumplings from China. The rice laced with methamidophos was sold for making rice crackers and Japanese confectioneries as were products produced with the rice, the ministry said.

A Mikasa Foods official told reporters that aflatoxin was intentionally mixed with raw materials for shochu at the discretion of then head of the firm’s Kyushu office, denying that the head office was aware of it. The official also denied the government announcement that Mikasa Foods sold milled glutinous rice laced with methamidophos for edible use, saying the rice was only used to produce industrial glue.

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Mikasa Foods President Mitsuo Fuyuki, left, bows in apology during his first news conference over the sale of the tainted rice, in Osaka's Kita-ku on Saturday.OSAKA -- The president of a wholesale rice processing firm under fire for reselling inedible tainted rice for human consumption apologized over the company's activities in a news conference on Saturday, admitting that he ordered the illicit sales.

"I handed down the orders. I gave the OK in response to a question (in the workplace) over whether it was all right to do it," said 73-year-old Mitsuo Fuyuki, president of Mikasa Foods, in a news conference in Osaka's Kita-ku on Saturday morning.

Fuyuki also revealed that the company had kept two sets of account books to conceal its activities.

"I have caused everyone great trouble and concern," Fuyuki said at the beginning of the news conference, bowing deeply. "We are currently recalling products under instruction from the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries."

Commenting on the fact that the rice sold by Mikasa Foods was tainted with the pesticide methamidophos and carcinogenic aflatoxin B1 mold, Fuyuki said, "I was basically aware (of the dangers). I deeply regret it."

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The Yomiuri Shimbun

OSAKA--Mikasa Foods mixed about 700 tons of tainted nonglutinous rice for industrial use with untainted foreign-produced rice for food processing and resold it to rice vendors and producers of shochu liquor and other products over the past five years, according to sources.

The Kita Ward, Osaka-based processor and seller of rice and other grains has been implicated in a scandal involving the making of illicit profits by reselling rice tainted with carcinogenic mold and residual pesticides.

The proportion of tainted rice mixed in with the clean rice was about 10 percent, the sources said.

"We mixed the [clean rice] with the cheap tainted rice to reduce costs and so we could be competitive on price," a senior company official said.

According to the company, it purchased about 980 tons of the nonglutinous rice between fiscal 2003 and 2007, but limited it to industrial use because of the bad smell of the fungi and other tainted substances.

At least 700 tons of this was cleaned to remove mold, or washed, and mixed with the rice used to make products such as rice snacks or shochu. This rice was sold to shochu distillers in Kumamoto and Kagoshima prefectures, and other places, including rice stores in Osaka, the sources said.

Mikasa Foods sells about 4,000 tons of clean rice for food processing annually. It reportedly mixed in small proportions of the tainted rice on occasions such as when customers pressed for discounts during price negotiations or when the firm was out of stock of clean rice.

Even after removing mold from the tainted rice, its hue differs from that of clean rice.

To avoid detection when manufacturers made sampling inspections, Mikasa Foods would limit the proportion of tainted rice mixed in to about 10 percent, the sources said.

It would also adjust the proportion, increasing it if the company needed to make a large price discount, for example.

Mikasa Foods reportedly would tell customers that it was its cost-efficiency efforts that allowed it to keep prices low.

The total amount of tainted rice that Mikasa Foods sold mixed with the clean rice for consumption is unclear, but it is believed that nearly all of it has been consumed.

Clean rice for regular food processing sells at between 50 yen and 70 yen per kilogram, and rice for making industrial adhesive sells at 30 yen per kilogram.

The company bought the tainted rice for between 10 yen and 20 yen per kilogram and is believed to have sold it with a large profit margin as rice for food production, not for industrial purposes.

(Sep. 9, 2008)

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The Yomiuri Shimbun

OSAKA--Mikasa Foods, an Osaka-based food-processing company, sold tainted rice for consumption for about a decade, a 76-year-old adviser to the company has told The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The man also said he suspected Mikasa Foods, based in Kita Ward in the city, is not the only grain trading company to have sold rice tainted with carcinogenic fungus or residual pesticide, suggesting the practice is rampant.

Meanwhile, the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry admitted its checks on the companies had been lax as the ministry had notified the firms in advance of inspection the dates on which checks would be conducted how tainted rice for industrial use was processed and distributed.

As a result of the advance warnings, Mikasa Foods is believed to have been able to conceal its illegal activities by preparing bogus records for ministry inspectors to examine.

In the interview, conducted Saturday, the adviser said he previously ran a store that processed and sold rice and other grains used as livestock feed.

His business was absorbed by Mikasa in 1997, and he was responsible for the company's plant in Kyushu between around 1998 and 2006 to 2007, he said.

Mikasa Foods President Mitsuo Fuyuki said at a press conference Saturday that the adviser had supported the illegal practice, which Fuyuki said began "five or six years ago." He did not identify the adviser.

The adviser's comments have deepened suspicions the company began the illegal practice soon after it began trading nonedible tainted rice.

"From around 1985 [when I ran a store myself], I separated clean grains of rice from fungus-tainted rice and resold the rice for consumption. Some others have done the same," the adviser said.

He also said that about two years ago, he was asked by Fuyuki to help sell rice that was tainted with methamidophos, a organophosphorous pesticide, for use in edible rice products from about 18 months ago.

He said he asked a research institute to measure the concentrations of residual pesticide in the rice and found they were within acceptable government limits. This prompted him to start selling the rice for consumption.

"We confirmed the concentrations of residual pesticide in the rice, so it shouldn't have caused any health problems," he said. "I assume buyers knew about this, but bought it anyway because it was cheaper."

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Lax ministry checks highlighted


The Mikasa scandal also has shed light on the ministry's lax procedures for checking distribution channels of tainted rice that is not supposed to be sold for human consumption.

According to the farm ministry, every year the government purchases so-called minimum access rice--foreign-grown rice that Japan is obliged to import a certain quota of under World Trade Organization rules--and domestic rice for emergency stocks.

If the rice is found to be tainted with levels of residual pesticide that exceed the government's standards, or if it becomes tainted with fungus in warehouses, it is banned from being sold for consumption.

The government sells the nonedible rice to grain traders exclusively for use in producing industrial-use starch and livestock feed.

But because prices of nonedible rice are lower than that used for making shochu liquor and senbei rice crackers, the ministry has to check the rice it sells has been properly used.

The ministry's regional offices check inventory levels, how much has been processed and details of company sales within their respective regions.

(Sep. 8, 2008)