Japan yesterday ordered retailers to pull frozen beans imported from China off the shelves after a woman fell ill eating a product that 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.
A ministry official said the woman felt numb in her mouth on Sunday after eating a dish using the beans, which she bought at a Tokyo supermarket.
She went to hospital and was released with no apparent health problems after an overnight check, he said.
The ministry ordered sales of the beans to be halted “until the cause of the incident becomes clear,” the official said.
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.
Chief Cabinet Secretary Takeo Kawamura said the government had informed the Chinese embassy in Tokyo of the case.
“It is too early to determine” whether the beans were contaminated in China, Kawamura said.
The importer, Tokyo-based Nichirei Foods, said it sourced the beans from a company called Yantai Beihai Foodstuff in Shandong Province.
“We conducted an inspection on a sample of the beans before importing them but did not detect pesticides,” a Nichirei Foods spokesman said.
The beans were grown in Heilongjiang Province where there was no record of any use of pesticides, the importer said.
The woman bought the frozen beans at a branch of the Ito-Yokado supermarket chain in Tokyo’s middle-class Hachioji neighborhood.
“We checked bags of the same product but didn’t find any holes or any abnormalities,” the manager of the supermarket told reporters.
Food safety has turned into a major political issue in Japan, which imports 60 percent of its food — the highest rate of any wealthy 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.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS