News Snow Brand admits to faking domestic beef

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Snow Brand Food Co. admitted Jan. 23 that it deliberately relabeled Australian beef as domestic to take advantage of a government subsidy introduced after the recent mad cow disease outbreak.

Tokyo-based Snow Brand Food, a subsidiary of Snow Brand Milk Products Co., asked warehouser Nishinomiya Reizo in October for permission to allow it to secretly repackage Australian beef that it was storing as domestic meat, sources said

Tons of the beef went into the pipeline for receiving money under a government program to buy up domestic beef in storage and destroy it as a measure against mad cow disease.

Snow Brand Food President Shozo Yoshida claimed the wrongdoing was solely the decision of the manager of Kansai Meat Center, a beef-processing subsidiary in Itami, Hyogo Prefecture.

Yoshida said the manager was worried about accumulating stockpiles of unwanted beef after Japan's first case of mad cow disease was confirmed in September.

The beef was imported at a price of ¥700 per kg. Under the subsidy program, the purchase price is ¥1,060. Snow Brand Food applied for ¥14.6 million in subsidies and has received ¥9.6 million.

The Snow Brand group has been struggling to improve its image since July 2000, when some of its processed milk products caused Japan's worst food-poisoning outbreak.

雪印食品、牛肉詰め替え認める

雪印乳業の子会社「雪印食品」が23日、オーストラリア産の牛肉を、狂牛病対策により買い取り制度の対象となった国産牛の箱に詰め替えていたことを認めた。

Shukan ST: Feb. 1, 2001

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