Pesticide found in packaged Japanese foods – over 1,700 sick
By Canadian Packaging Staff
Automation food poisoning frozen food poisoned Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc. poisoningPesticide levels inside the packaged frozen food were at 2.6 million times the allowed levels.
With over 1,700 people across Japan having fallen ill since December 29, 2013, Japanese police are investigating the matter trying to determine how pesticide levels 2.6 million times the allowable limit have been found in the packages of frozen food produced by Maruha Nichiro Holdings Inc.
As of January 8, 2014, over one thousand people have reportedly been made ill by pesticide known as malathion – and while an insecticide, its toxicity to humans is relatively low.
The matter has been referred to Gunma-ken (Gunma Prefecture) police where the contamination and food packing appears to have taken place because prefecture health officials could find no evidence of contamination during the actual production – meaning this appears to be poisoning case perhaps by a disgruntled employee.
As such, police are talking to about 300 employees of the packaged food plant.
Back on December 29, 2013, the Tokyo-based Maruha Nichiro said it was recalling about 6.4 million bags of frozen foods, including croquettes, frozen pizza (see image above) and chicken nuggets.
Now, lest we all start pointing fingers at Maruha Nichiro, note that a company spokesman has stated that it tests packed foods several times a day for spoilage in accordance to current Japanese food laws, but it does not test for pesticides because there was no reason to believe pesticides would ever be present.
Advertisement
