'Peko-chan' takes a beating
(From The Japan Times Jan. 19 issue)

「不二家」の不祥事

    The scandal, which hit the company's cake production component, was caused by slipshod quality control. It is expected to have a severe impact on the company, since fans of Fujiya cakes must feel that they have been betrayed.

    Media reports on Jan. 10 shook not only the company, whose origin goes back to a confectioner opened in Yokohama in 1910, but also consumers. The reports said the company's Saitama plant had made cream puffs with milk that had passed its expiration date and shipped them to Tokyo and nine other prefectures in November.

    Some 60 liters of milk carrying a Nov. 7 expiration date were used in making the cream puffs Nov. 8. That act alone may not constitute a violation of the Food Sanitation Law unless it has caused health problems such as food poisoning.

    But a food company must provide a wide margin of safety in its daily operations, since consumer confidence is based on the belief that it is taking utmost care to ensure the safety of its products.

    At a Jan. 11 news conference, Fujiya said expired milk was used at the Saitama plant to make some 15,000 cream puffs. There were three other cases of irregularities at the plant, including one involving the use of processed apples up to four days past their expiration date for pies and other products on four occasions. And best-by date labels one day later than the company's standards were used for puddings on one occasion.

    It is now reported that "expired" cream was used until Jan. 5 at the plant and that it failed to make public a 1995 food-poisoning case involving products from its Osaka plant.

    Fujiya has paid a high price for its slack attitude toward quality control.

    The confectioner has been forced to halt operations at all five of its pastry factories as well as sales of cakes, which account for about 30 percent (¥27 billion) of the company's total sales. It also must pay compensation to 707 Fujiya-franchised confectionary shops in Tokyo and 36 other prefectures after they, too, had to suspend business operations.

    Major supermarkets and convenience stores have pulled the company's products off their shelves. If this situation is prolonged, it will greatly affect the company's earnings.

    As an expression of his responsibility, Fujiya President Rintaro Fujii decided to step down and named on Jan. 22 director Yasufumi Sakurai as the new president. At a news conference, Mr. Fujii also disclosed an additional 18 cases in which its Saitama plant made cakes with milk, cream, eggs and blueberry jam that had passed their expiration dates, plus other irregularities. The latter includes findings of bacteria counts in cakes that exceeded both national and company standards.

    The health ministry has set a limit of 100,000 bacteria per gram of cake; Fujiya's rule is more severe, a maximum allowance of 10,000 bacteria per gram — above which cakes are not shipped. At the Saitama plant, 6.4 million bacteria were found per gram in some products, and at the company's Sapporo plant, products were found to contain more than 1 million bacteria per gram on six occasions.

    Yet all the products involved were shipped on each occasion.

    It is surprising that a well-known company like Fujiya has not learned the lesson from the scandal in 2000 that hit Snow Brand Milk Products Co. That company sold spoiled milk that sickened about 14,000 people, and it has never fully recovered from the loss of public confidence. Eventually it stopped selling the Snow Brand brand of milk and the company's name became associated only with the production of butter and cheese.

    As a result of the Snow Brand scandal, food-product companies should have learned the importance of protecting brand image.

    To maintain consumer confidence, most companies have taken pains to ensure their products are safe.

    Fujiya committed a big mistake from the first: It did not promptly make public the discovery of the cream-puff irregularities. A task force found that a part-timer "in his 60s" had used the expired milk.

    The task force reported the mistake only to a committee of executives. The report to the committee said if the mass media found out, there would be trouble for the company and that the company would risk suffering the same fate as Snow Brand. Although Fujiya says that it had no intention of hiding the facts, the contents of the report will most likely deepen public suspicion about the company's policy.

The Japan Times Weekly: Jan. 27, 2007
(C) All rights reserved

    杜撰な品質管理によって起きた不二家の問題は、同社の経営に深刻な影響を与えると予想される。報道によれば、同社の埼玉工場は、消費期限が11月7日の牛乳60リットルを、11月8日にシュークリーム製造に使用したという。この行為そのものは、食中毒などの原因にならない限り食品衛生法違反にはならないが、食品企業は厳しい安全基準を守らねばならない。

    不二家は11日の記者会見で、期限切れの牛乳を使って製造したシュークリームは15,000個に上ることを認めた。また、アップルパイなどに賞味期限切れのりんご加工品を使用したり、プリンの賞味期限を1日遅らせたことも判明した。

    また、同社は期限切れの牛乳を今月5日まで使用していた上、1995年に大阪工場製の製品が原因で起きた食中毒も公表していなかった。

    大手スーパーやコンビニは不二家製品を撤去し、藤井林太郎社長は辞任した。

    厚労省は、ケーキ1グラム当たり10万個のバクテリアを上限基準としているが、不二家の社内基準はより厳格で、グラム当たり1万個となっている。ところが、埼玉工場ではグラム当たり640万個のバクテリアが検出され、札幌工場では6回、グラム当たり100万個が検出されていたにもかかわらず、製品を出荷した。

    不二家は2000年に起きた雪印乳業製品による大規模中毒事件から教訓を学んでいなかった。 不二家はシュークリームをめぐる問題を直ちに公表せず、社内の調査委員会が経営陣に報告しただけだった。同社は真相を隠す意図はなかったというが、報告書は、会社に対する消費者の不信を深めるだけだろう。