Recall issued for tainted Japanese noodles

[shan]

TOKYO -- One of Japan's largest instant noodle makers said it was issuing a nationwide recall after a woman grew sick when she ate a cup of noodles that was later found to be tainted with an insecticide.

aissin Food Products, Co., which makes the Cup Noodle brand instant noodles, said Friday that it was recalling the products and advised customers not to eat noodles that had an odd smell or damaged packaging. The recall only applies to the Cup Noodle brand instant noodles in Japan.


The recall covers 500,000 cups of instant noodles, according to Japanese media reports.


The recalled noodles are a cheap and common snack in Japan and are manufactured in the country.


Nissin president Susumu Nakagawa said the noodles could not have been contaminated at his company's factories.


"We have confirmed that the chemical is not and has not ever been used in this product," he told reporters at a press conference late Thursday.

Earlier Thursday, city officials in Fujisawa, about 25 miles (40 kilometers) southwest of Tokyo, said a woman had grown sick and vomited after eating Nissin Cup Noodles she bought at a local supermarket earlier in the week. The noodles were found to be contaminated with paradichlorobenzene, a chemical used in bug repellent.

On Friday, the Japanese Consumers' Co-operative Union, which runs a chain of cooperative supermarkets, said it had found the chemical in several varieties of Cup Noodle made by Nissin and was pulling the products from its stores.

This year, Japan has been hit by several high-profile incidents involving tainted food, including rice and soybeans, and Tokyo is considering creating a new, specialized agency to monitor food and product safety.

Nissin launched the world's first instant noodles, a chicken ramen product, in 1958, according to its Web site.

[shan]

Shall we ban japanese noodles for good ?

[The Smoking Man]

Shall we ban japanese noodles for good ?

Nice attempt at spin.

You failed however.

How does the Chinese mind work that you can't use it to logically define the difference between types of incidents???

Are these skills that feeble or are you prepared to make an attempt at redefining your assumptions?

It's not even worth me pointing them out any more ... troll.

[shan]

are you serious ?

yes, it's an incident , but it happened because the concerned Japanese are careless, negligent, oversight and pay no intention to their duty , so it's artificial and it's unforgivable and they  put their people's life at stake


Don't justify, forgive and legalize their fault SIMPLY because they are Japanese or NON -Chinese.

[shan]

you think the domestic needs is only from individuals?

and simulating domestic needs only means encouraging people to take money from their own pockets ?

pick a business book to study a bit to avoid making more wrong argumentations.

[The Smoking Man]

Funny ... haven't seen a single thing in a business book on product tampering.

Maybe you can direct me since this is the way business is done in China?

[shan]

BEIJING -- China's quality watchdog said on Thursday it found toxic chemicals in food products imported from Japan.


The food products were produced by three Japanese factories. But GAQSIQ didn't reveal the names of the producers.

Maximal toluene content was 0.0053 mg per kg, while acetic ester content was 0.537 mg per kg. This would risk people's health, said experts.

Toluence and acetic ester are chemicals that can be used as dyeware, paint and solvent. It will lead to headache and vomit if people eat the food tainted with them.

The GAQSIQ has ordered Chinese importers to inspect and test products of the same kind and remove them from shelves, in a bid to ensure consumer safety.

No sickness were reported in China, but earlier Japanese media said some Japanese people felt sick after eating food tainted by the two chemicals.

[The Smoking Man]

I will ask you again if you know the difference between accidental contamination and deliberately applying a product to commit fraud.

Do you know the difference, shan?

[shan]

the result is the same -- people got sick and died

it's a behavior of criminal

[The Smoking Man]

the result is the same -- people got sick and died

it's a behavior of criminal

That is what I thought.

You still don't know.

[The Smoking Man]

I'll try to point it out with this article which states that melamine was purposely added to Chinese food to cheat the system into thinking it contained higher protein levels. The products can be sold to make more money such as diluting milk with water and simulating protein content with deceptive nitrogen levels which would indicate pure milk in twice the quantity and therefore twice the money.

In the Japanese case, the chemicals that contaminated their product could not be used to cheat anyone, they are not deadly and merely cause sickness. There was no attempt to defraud anyone and in fact, the discovery of the chemicals causes loss of reputation only. There is NO WAY that the addition of the chemicals in any way benefits anyone.

Chinese media say tainted animal feed widespread
By ANITA CHANG, Associated Press Writer Thu Oct 30, 2:26 pm ET

BEIJING – The industrial chemical melamine is commonly added to animal feed in China to fake higher protein levels, state media reported Thursday, offering what appeared to be a tacit admission by the government that the food supply could be rife with contamination.

The Nanfang Daily said it was an "open secret" in the industry that melamine scrap is being repackaged into an inexpensive product called "protein powder" that is sold to food suppliers.

The Web sites of the official Xinhua News Agency and the Communist Party's main newspaper, the People's Daily, also carried the story in a rare step of publicizing information that reflects poorly on the country.

Safety scandals involving melamine contamination of dairy products and eggs in recent weeks have been further blows to the reputation of Chinese products, which have been under fire the past year since high levels of chemicals and additives were found in goods ranging from toothpaste to milk powder.

Four brands of Chinese eggs have been found tainted with melamine in a week, and agriculture officials speculated the source was adulterated feed given to hens.

No illnesses have been linked to eggs. But similar contamination of milk and other dairy products sent tens of thousands of Chinese children to the hospital and was linked to the deaths of four infants.

The milk scandal was blamed on dairy suppliers who added melamine to watered-down milk to dupe quality control tests and make the product appear high in protein. Melamine, a chemical used in the manufacture of plastics and fertilizer, is high in nitrogen, and most protein tests check a food product's nitrogen level.

Health experts say ingesting a small amount of melamine poses no danger, but in larger doses it can cause kidney stones and lead to kidney failure.

It is forbidden to deliberately add melamine to food and animal feed in China, but its apparent prevalence highlights the inability of authorities to keep the food production process clean of toxins despite official vows to raise safety standards.

The Ministry of Agriculture and the General Administration of Quality Supervision, Inspection and Quarantine did not respond to faxed requests for comment on Thursday's media reports. Phones rang unanswered at the Ministry of Health.

The Nanfang Daily said chemical plants used to pay companies to treat and dispose of melamine scrap, but about five years ago began selling it to manufacturers who repackaged it as "protein powder."

Initially, the inexpensive powder was used to give the impression of higher protein levels in aquatic feed, then companies started added it to feed for cattle and poultry, the report said, citing an unidentified chemical industry expert.

"The effect far more exceeds the milk powder scandal," the newspaper said.

The account was backed up by a manager reached by The Associated Press at a feed company based in central Henan province, but he added that the practice had been going on even longer than reported — some seven or eight years.

The manager, who refused to give his name or other identifying details, citing the sensitivity of the issue, blamed suppliers to feed companies.

"It's the suppliers who do it to raise the protein level, because we put in the contract a requirement for a certain level of protein," he said. "It's very common that feed for egg-laying hens contains melamine. The suppliers add it because their ingredients for the feed are sold at a low price."

He added that his company's contract with suppliers bans them from adding melamine to their products.

Marion Nestle, a professor of nutrition, food studies and public health at New York University, said it was unlikely humans would get sick from eating meat from animals raised on melamine-tainted feed, because the amount of chemical in a few servings of meat would not be harmful.

However, she added: "It shouldn't be in the food supply at all. It's fraudulent. And the animals really can't use it for nutrition, so it's not good for the animals."

Nestle, who wrote a book about last year's pet food scandal in which a Chinese ingredient tainted with melamine sickened and killed dogs and cats in North America, said she was surprised China's government was allowing the media to admit to widespread melamine contamination.

"I view this as a sign the Chinese government is taking the food safety problem very seriously and this is the first step to doing something about it," she said by telephone.

The tainted milk scandal was a blow to China's dairy industry. Shanghai-based Bright Dairy and Food Co. reported a net loss of $39.6 million in the third quarter, compared to a profit of $57 million in the quarter a year earlier, Xinhua said Thursday.

Two other major dairy companies, Mengniu Dairy Group Co. and Yili Industrial Group Co., saw sales plummet more than 90 percent after word spread of the contamination, Xinhua said.

___

Associated Press researcher Xi Yue in Beijing contributed to this report.