Fujiya used out-of-date cream until Jan. 5

Fujiya announced Tuesday that its plant in Saitama Prefecture kept using cream beyond the expiration date to make shortcake until Jan. 5, revising an earlier statement that it had stopped such practices in November.

A customer peers Tuesday into one of some 800 shuttered Fujiya Co. franchise cake stores. The firm's trademark mascot, Peko-chan, has been removed from outside shops across the nation. AP PHOTO

The major confectionary firm had said it ordered factories to observe expiration standards for ingredients in November, when an in-house probe found that out-of-date ingredients were being used.

The latest revelation came during interviews with employees at the factory on Saturday and Sunday. The name of the product in question is the Manhattan Short.

Fujiya said it was not aware of any reported illnesses involving its food products as of Tuesday.

Meanwhile, company sources said bacteria in some Fujiya Co. products exceeded 6.4 million per gram as managers and other employees widely ignored the cake maker's internal sanitation and quality control systems,

The government's limit is 100,000 bacteria per gram.

The factories at the center of the scandal, for example, failed to halt product shipments and order re-examinations when bacteria levels exceeded the major confectioner's strict standards, the sources said.

Rules for double-checking expiration dates were also reportedly ignored at those factories, they said.

Shipments are supposed to be restricted when products contain more than 10,000 bacteria per gram. The limit set by the Health, Labor and Welfare Ministry is 100,000 per gram, the sources said.

Most of the problems apparently developed at the factories in Saitama Prefecture and Sapporo.

At the factory in Saitama Prefecture, there was at least one case in which a product bacteria level of about 6.4 million per gram was detected, they said.

At the factory in Sapporo, there were six cases in which products each contained over 1 million bacteria per gram.

The Saitama factory was also the site of an incident in which a part-timer -- a rehired veteran -- decided to use an ingredient that had expired, the sources said.

Under the internal rules, two different workers are supposed to double-check expiration dates, but the internal inspection system was ignored by workers at the Saitama plant, they said.

The Tokyo-based confectioner, listed on the first section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange, admitted Monday that an in-house investigation showed the company used expired milk, cream, eggs and other ingredients on 18 occasions at its Saitama factory for more than seven years dating from 1999.

Fujiya has halted all five of its factories and suspended business at about 700 shops and restaurants.

Retailers scrambled Tuesday to pull Fujiya candy and chocolate off their shelves after the scandal-mired confectioner acknowledged using old milk and filling in products sold at its shops.

Fujiya, long beloved for both its sweets and its trademark girl mascot Peko-chan, has shocked consumers with its sloppy standards.

Peko-chan, meanwhile, seems to have taken a powder.

The smiling life-size figure was nowhere to be seen at some 800 Fujiya franchise cake stores around the country. Instead, shutters were down, with signs posted apologizing for the scandal.

Although cookies, candy and other Fujiya products sold at retail stores were not affected by the safety problem at the cake shops, major supermarkets pulled the company's products off their shelves starting Monday to disassociate themselves from the tarnished company.