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Japan detects pesticide in frozen beans from China
2008-10-15
Japan on Wednesday ordered retailers to pull frozen beans from China off the shelves after three people fell ill from eating a product which had 34,500 times the legal limit of pesticide, officials said. Japan's health ministry instructed retailers and importers nationwide to suspend sales of frozen green beans from a Chinese supplier "until the cause of the incident becomes clear." A ministry official said that one woman experienced numbness in her mouth Sunday after eating a dish containing the beans, which she had bought at a Tokyo supermarket. She went to hospital and was released with no apparent health problems after an overnight check, he said. Two more people reported numbness in the mouth and nausea in Chiba prefecture near the capital, a local health official said. It is the latest health scare surrounding food from China, where four children died recently after consuming milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine. The Tokyo metropolitan government conducted tests on the beans on Tuesday and found they had 34,500 times the pesticide residue level permitted by the Japanese government. The beans were manufactured by Yantai Beihai Foodstuff in eastern China's Shandong province. A company spokesman said managers did not believe the firm was responsible. "From all the information gathered, we currently suspect this is not a case of pesticides residue (originating from Yantai)," said Jiang Pengfei, from Yantai's business department. He said that the Japanese government wanted to halt shipments but that it was still confirming with its client whether all shipments would end. It appeared to be an isolated case, Jiang said. "If it was a case of pesticide residue on a large scale (through all Yantai's beans), the level of residue wouldn't be so high," Jiang said. In Tokyo, Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said the government had informed the Chinese embassy in Tokyo of the case but that it was "too early" to determine the cause of the contamination. The beans were grown in Heilongjiang province in northeastern China where there was no record of any use of pesticides, said Tokyo-based Nichirei Foods, which imported the produce. "We conducted an inspection on a sample of the beans before importing them but did not detect pesticides," a Nichirei Foods spokesman said. The Tokyo woman who fell ill bought the frozen beans at a branch of the Ito-Yokado supermarket chain in the capital's middle-class Hachioji neighbourhood. "We checked bags of the same product but didn't find any holes or any abnormalities," the manager of the supermarket told television reporters. Food safety has turned into a major political issue in Japan, which imports 60 percent of its food -- the highest rate of any rich country. Ten people suffered pesticide poisoning in December and January, and thousands of others reported feeling sick after eating frozen dumplings imported from China. One girl went into a coma before recovering. Japan and China, who have been working to repair sometimes rocky relations, have held meetings in a bid to find the cause of the pesticide contamination. China's image as a food producer has suffered in recent months because of a scandal over milk products tainted with melamine. Four Chinese children are known to have died and at least 53,000 made ill after consuming melamine-laced milk, leading to import bans being imposed by countries around the world.
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