Rice havoc may cost ¥2 billion

The damage caused by recalling "shochu" liquor and rice crackers made from contaminated rice distributed by Mikasa Foods is expected to exceed ¥2 billion, manufacturers said Saturday.

By Saturday, the shochu and sake recalled nationwide over the rice scandal had exceeded 1 million bottles.

On the same day, it was found that the Osaka-based food processor neglected to check pesticide concentrations in its rice before shipping, company sources said.

Between November 2007 and August this year, the firm shipped rice to a distributor in Fukuoka Prefecture nearly 20 times but only made 10 tests at the most, the sources said.

Concerns about food safety are spreading after the Kyoto city government announced Friday that the toxic pesticide methamidophos was detected at twice the permitted concentration in Chinese sticky rice Mikasa sold to a local nursery and a nursing center in Kyoto.

The ministry said the pesticide in the rice had a concentration of 0.02 parts per million, or twice the legal limit.

Companies began recalling their products immediately after the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry announced Sept. 5 that the rice miller illegally sold rice as edible even though it knew it was contaminated with illegal amounts of methamidophos (a toxic pesticide) or aflatoxin (a toxic moldy substance).

The farm ministry has been trying to determine the routes the tainted rice took from Mikasa after it was distributed, but the channels are complicated and widespread.

The tainted rice, which came from China, Vietnam and the United States, was originally sold to Mikasa by the farm ministry, which imports a certain amount of foreign rice under "minimum access" rules set by a World Trade Organization accord.

Imported rice that fails to qualify as edible for such reasons as being moldy, containing unsafe amounts of pesticide residue, or being damaged during shipment is sold as inedible and restricted to industrial use, such as for making glue or animal feed.

The tainted rice is having a big impact of shochu makers, mostly in Kyushu, and beverage maker Asahi Breweries Ltd., which has sales channels all over the nation.

One of the first companies to announce a recall was Nishi Shuzo in Kagoshima Prefecture, which used tainted rice to make its well-known shochu Satsuma Hozan. Nishi Shuzo retrieved 300,000 bottles of the shochu and has also decided to discard 1.17 million bottles worth of inventory, damage that the company said it expects to exceed ¥400 million.

That recall was followed by one on Tuesday by Bishonen Shuzo in Kumamoto Prefecture, which took back 30,000 bottles of sake and discarded 380,000 bottles' worth still in the brewing tank.

On Thursday, Asahi said it would recall a whopping 650,000 bottles of shochu.