June 21, 2007
Japanese meat firm under investigation on mixing pork on its ground beef products
A meat processor in Hokkaido, Japan is under investigation for its mixture of pork in its beef products.
Meat Hope Co., president Minoru Tanaka admitted a possible pork-and-beef mixture in its labelled ground beef products and may have been shipped to food companies including a local subsidiary of major frozen food maker Katokichi Co., which ended up being distributed nationwide after being processed into food products such as beef croquettes.
Tanaka said the meat assortment was purely a "human error".
The allegation prompted Katokichi, based in Kagawa Prefecture, to set up a taskforce headed by Director Kazuo Kobayashi on Tuesday.
The foods in question include ''Co-op Beef Croquette,'' which Hokkaido Katokichi Co. produced using the minced meat. A total of 5 million packages have been sold since March 2003, according to the seller Japanese Consumers' Cooperative Union.
Hokkaido Katokichi has already stopped producing the questioned beef.
According to Tanaka, the company minces beef, pork and chicken one after another in only one machine and pork left in the machine may have possibly been mixed with beef. But he also said there is a possibility that the company added pork to beef when it ran out of beef.
Katokichi will ask Meat Hope to explain the supposed mixing of meats this week.
Meat Hope was established in 1976 and employs about 500 people including those in its affiliates with annual sales of 1.65 billion in the business year through March 2006.