Illegal flavouring agents prompt food recall
food products which were made using banned flavouring agents
acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde and castor oil.
Five Japanese companies have said they will recall a wide range of food products which were made using three banned flavouring agents.
The ingredients - acetaldehyde, propionaldehyde and castor oil - were used by Tokyo-based flavour maker Kyowa Perfumery & Chemical Company, even though Japan's Food Sanitation Law bars food makers from using these substances as ingredients.
One company, Ezaki Glico, said it would recall 10 types of confectionery products including chocolates and ice cream at a cost of some ¥106 million (€0.9m). Bourbon Corporation said it had recalled 19 products including biscuits, cookies and chocolates.
Kyowa Hakko Kogyo Company, which is unrelated to Kyowa Perfumery, is recalling nine alcoholic beverage products including Shitamachi Chuhai Ume, while Riken Vitamin Company has recalled three soup products worth some ¥10 million. The company said that the products affected by the recall were those with a use by date of 21 May 2003.
Snow Brand Milk Products, which has already its fair share of problems this year due to the scandal over incorrect meat labelling, said it would recall two products - Snow Brand Soft Corn ice cream and Snow Whip, a material for home-made cakes - by putting a notice in Tuesday's newspapers. Soft Corn is sold only on the main northern Japanese island of Hokkaido.
Last Friday, a public health centre in Ibaraki Prefecture ordered Kyowa Perfumery's local plant to halt operations and recall products it had shipped containing the flavourings.
