The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) yesterday said it has requested the recall of a company’s natto products — Japanese fermented soy beans — from restaurants and supermarkets, as they include a packet of soy sauce allegedly produced in Japan’s Ibaraki Prefecture, one of the five prefectures from which food imports have been banned since 2011.
A customer at fast-food restaurant chain Yoshinoya reported the soy sauce included with a natto product. The sauce, which is sold by Japan’s Kajinoya and imported by Taicrown (太冠), was manufactured in Ibaraki Prefecture, according to a report by the Chinese-language Apple Daily yesterday.
The administration said the place of origin on the natto label reads Kanagawa Prefecture, with the import registration filed by Taicrown also indicating it is from Kanagawa, but the information printed on the sauce packet says it is from Ibaraki Prefecture.
Photo courtesy of the Food and Drug Administration
The product did not show any signs of radiation contamination, but the agency still sent inspectors to Taicrown and a Yoshinoya to investigate.
“We took a sample of the product during our inspection at a Yoshinoya store and sent it to the Atomic Energy Council for examination,” FDA Northern Center section head Wu Ming-mei (吳明美) said. “The radiation test did not detect any contamination.”
“The company took preventive measures to recall and remove the product from shelves and will not sell the product until an investigation is complete,” she said.
Yoshinoya is to temporarily cease natto sales, the administration said, adding that 5,142 items were removed from shelves on Friday.
The product is also sold at supermarkets in department stores and hypermarket RT-Mart (大潤發), Wu said, adding that the administration has asked Taicrown to provide documents from Kajinoya to explain the point of origin of the soy sauce before the end of today.
If the sauce is made in Ibaraki Prefecture, the company could face a fine of between NT$30,000 and NT$3 million (US$942 and US$94,162) for false registration, Wu said.
The administration urged food importers to check products and remove them from sale if they are produced in Japan’s Fukushima, Ibaraki, Tochigi, Gunma or Chiba prefectures.
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