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China plant likely source of contamination: Japan

Japan said yesterday that dumplings behind a nationwide scare were likely contaminated with pesticide at a factory near Beijing, as a growing number of consumers shunned Chinese produce.

Thousands of Japanese people have complained of feeling ill after eating dumplings from China, with authorities confirming that 10 of them suffered pesticide poisoning.

Japanese police examining suspicious packages said that the dumplings were properly sealed by the time they were put on sale in Japan.

"If you use your common sense, if the possibility is that the pesticide was inserted before sealing the package, then it must have happened at the plant," chief government spokesman Nobutaka Machimura told a news conference.

But he added: "We are not in a position to make the final conclusion as investigators must work cautiously by taking various possibilities into account."

Japanese Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda said separately that the police investigation into the Chinese-made dumplings "has been taking some time, but I think it is getting closer to the heart of the matter."

"We will make our utmost efforts in the investigation so as to restore the system of food safety," Fukuda said in parliament.

Police in western Hyogo Prefecture investigated 11 packages of dumplings confiscated after consumers said they looked sticky.

Police found the pesticide methamidophos "on the inner surface and the outer surface of one of the packages. This package did not have any holes until we opened it for investigation," a Hyogo police spokesman said.

China, which is Japan's largest trading partner, has pleaded with Tokyo not to jump to conclusions and said it was investigating the cause of the pesticide scare.

A Japanese government team this week said it found nothing unusual when it toured the factory of Tianyang Food Company near Beijing that produced the frozen dumplings for a unit of Japan Tobacco Inc.

Officials in both countries have raised the possibility of deliberate tampering with the dumplings, although their governments have made more cautious statements.
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