Insult to meat consumers
(From The Japan Times June 29 issue)

偽装牛肉事件

    The agriculture ministry says Meat Hope started mislabeling products in 1983 and has sold 368 tons of falsely labeled meat — minced beef mixed with minced pork or chicken labeled as pure ground beef — to Hokkaido Katokichi Co. and 17 other companies since July 2006. Other incidents included mixing duck meat and cattle hearts with minced beef, changing use-by dates of frozen fried chicken, inserting sliced foreign beef into sliced domestic beef, and calling Brazilian chicken "domestic."

    Meat Hope even bought back frozen croquettes from Hokkaido Katokichi, changed the use-by dates and resold them to other parties. The company's practices betrayed the public's trust in the ethical standards of food manufacturers in general as well as damaged the wholesome image of food products from Hokkaido. The remark by Meat Hope President Minoru Tanaka — "The whole industry is to blame. And consumers who look for cheap products are also to blame" — comes off as obnoxious.

    The Tomakomai public health center carried out an on-site inspection after the Hokkaido Prefectural Government received a tip-off in March 2002, but did not find irregularities. The farm ministry says it sent tip-off information to the prefectural government, but the latter denies receiving it. A former employee took mislabeled meat to the farm ministry's Hokkaido office twice in April 2006, but the office chose not to act. Both the central and prefectural governments' neglect in protecting food safety standards is most disturbing.

The Japan Times Weekly: July 7, 2007
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    ミートホープは、牛挽肉に豚または鶏挽肉を混ぜたものを100％牛挽肉として販売し、冷凍フライドチキンの賞味期限を変更し、国産牛肉に輸入牛肉を混入するなどしていた。

    ミートホープの田中社長は「業界全体が悪い。安物を求める消費者も悪い」と暴言を吐いた。

    苫小牧保健所は02年に、北海道庁への内部告発を受け、工場の調査を行ったが、問題はなかったという。また、農水省は道庁にミートホープの問題について情報を伝達したというが、道庁は否定している。さらに、元従業員が、06年に農水省北海道事務所に偽装牛肉の見本を持参したのに、事務所は動かなかった。中央政府、北海道庁の怠慢が非常に気になる。