Meat Hope boss, execs arrested over labeling scam

SAPPORO (Kyodo) The president of now-defunct Hokkaido-based meatpacker Meat Hope Co. was arrested Wednesday along with three other executives for allegedly selling minced meat labeled as 100 percent beef even though it contained pork and chicken.

The arrests come on the heels of falling consumer confidence in the food industry, aggravated by two other cases of food mislabeling that have made recent headlines.

Sapporo-based Ishiya Trading Co. falsified the expiration dates for its mainstay cookies Shiroi Koibito (White Beloveds), while Ise, Mie Prefecture-based Akafuku Co. has received a business suspension order for selling outdated bean paste sweets with inaccurate labels.

Minoru Tanaka, 69, and the three former executives of bankrupt Meat Hope are suspected of violating the Unfair Competition Prevention Law, which bans false labeling of products, Hokkaido Prefectural Police said.

The other three arrested are Yoshihito Tanaka, 34, the president's third son, factory manager Masayoshi Nakajima, 59, and Shizuo Iwaya, 64, who was in charge of production lines at the factory.

According to investigators, Minoru Tanaka has admitted the Tomakomai-based firm mislabeled products, saying it was to cut costs.

Police raided Minoru Tanaka's home in the morning, seeking evidence the company defrauded more than a dozen client companies with the mislabeling through last June.

The suspicion of fraud stems from allegations Meat Hope won the client firms' trust by presenting genuine beef products before contracts were signed.

The labeling scam was devised by the Tanakas, while Nakajima and Iwaya were told to carry it out, investigative sources alleged.

The firm was established in 1976. Business declined sharply when the scandal broke, forcing it to shut down in July after accumulating around ¥670 million in debts.

Commenting on the recent food mislabeling cases, agriculture chief Masatoshi Wakabayashi said his ministry, which oversees the food industry, may consider tightening safety regulations.