Japanese food recall extends to 20 companies

The recall of food products by five Japanese companies reported yesterday has been extended to another 15 firms, making it likely that the recall will be the biggest in Japan's history.

The recall was sparked by the discovery that chemicals group Kyowa Perfumery & Chemical Company had used three ingredients - acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde and castor oil - to make flavouring agents which were then used in a wide variety of food products. Japan's Food Sanitation Law prohibits food makers from using the substances as ingredients in food.

Some of the food companies involved are said to be preparing legal action against Kyowa to compensate them for the cost of the recall.

Nichirei, Japan's largest frozen-food maker, has recalled five products, including cheese and shrimp gratin, while another company, Otsuka Pharmaceutical, has recalled 460,000 samples of three of its products, including one brand called The Calcium.

Oriental Land Company said that it had stopped selling a range of confectionery products made by Morinaga & Co and Meiji Seika Kaisha at stores in and outside its Tokyo Disney resort.

While 20 or so companies have already announced recalls, the potential scale of the problem is much larger, as around 600 companies in Japan received the flavouring agents from Kyowa.

Kyowa president Akio Hirase apologised to the companies involved in the recall at a press conference held yesterday, saying that the company would do its utmost to compensate them for the cost of the recall.

Hirase admitted that Kyowa had begun using acetaldehyde in 1970 and propionaldehyde in 1985, and although these products were banned in the summer of 2000, the company knowingly continued to use them in its flavours.

When Kyowa started using alternatives to the substances last year, marketing representatives lied to customers and told them the original substances had become unavailable, Hirase admitted, adding that castor oil had been used right up until the end of May this year.

"I should have ordered an absolute ban on the use but I was afraid it would adversely affect our sales,"​ said Hirase. "We will work out ways to prevent a recurrence of the problem,"​ he added. Kyowa had used the three banned substances in 448 flavouring agents that generated annual sales of around ¥300 million (€2.57m), compared with its overall sales of around ¥16.1 billion.