Nissin recalls 500,000 cups of noodles after insecticide contamination

Saturday 25th October, 06:43 AM JST

TOKYO —

Nissin Food Products Co said Friday it was recalling half a million cups of instant noodles over fears of insecticide contamination in the latest food safety scare to rock the country’s consumers.

A 67-year-old woman vomited and felt numbness on her tongue after eating Nissin’s Cup Noodle this week in the Tokyo suburb of Fujisawa, the city’s health office said.

The product was made at a Nissin factory in Japan. A series of previous scares have involved food imported from China.

The health office said on inspecting the Cup Noodle they had discovered paradichlorobenzene, the key chemical in bug repellent, but no puncture or other abnormality in the cup.

Nissin was voluntarily recalling around 500,000 cups made on the same factory line the same day, a company spokesman said.

They were sold at supermarkets in Tokyo and neighboring areas with most of them already gone from store shelves, he said.

“We apologize for causing trouble to Cup Noodle lovers,” Nissin president Susumu Nakagawa told reporters.

However, he denied the possibility of contamination at the factory, saying it had never used or stored the insecticide and had seven security cameras watching manufacturing lines.

“It is unthinkable that the contamination occurred at our production lines,” he said.

The noodles scare spread Friday as another company, Myojo Foods Co of Tokyo, said it found instant noodles laced with paradichlorobenzene and naphthol, also used as bug repellent.

A man “poured in hot water and noticed chemical smells,” said a health official in Yososuka, southwest of Tokyo. The man was unhurt as he did not eat the noodles.

Nissin, based in the western Japan city of Osaka, created instant ramen noodles as Japan’s economy grew rapidly after World War II. Aimed at busy people on the go, it has since become a multibillion-dollar industry.

Wire reports

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14 Comments

mushroomcloud at 05:34 AM JST - 25th October

What type of insecticide did this Japanese company poison people with?
fatloser at 07:04 AM JST - 25th October

I'm sure the NPA is busily tracking down the source of this vial contamination at this very moment. Cars are being put in gear, shoes are being zipped, sandals are being slipped on, copmputers are being watched and mouses are being clicked!! Please stand by---the police are at work!! Have no fear this is not like one of those cases where people have been eating "mislabled animals and vegetables" However it could be a case of using substandard insecticide in order to save costs.
NuckinFutz at 07:13 AM JST - 25th October

Well unless the source of the contamination is from inside a police koban the NPA might as well untie their shoes, shut off the computers and go back to sleep.
hokkaidoguy at 08:26 AM JST - 25th October

Why on earth would Japan Today put out this story without including the relevant recall data?

That's some lousy reporting there, guys.
some14some at 09:12 AM JST - 25th October

Why on earth would Japan Today put out this story without including the relevant recall data?

That's some lousy reporting there, guys.

yeah, especially when NHK and other new channels are giving 'better' information. 28 cases were reported from March this year...but company kept quiet, because it did not reach to the person in charge of affair...
smithinjapan at 09:14 AM JST - 25th October

The companies kept it quiet because they were looking for a way to spin this on China.
Nessie at 09:30 AM JST - 25th October

“It is unthinkable that the contamination occurred at our production lines,” he said.

= we don't know the source = don't eat Nissin noodles
DirtyOldJoe at 09:36 AM JST - 25th October

here's the detail of the recall Hokkaidoguy.

http://www.nissinfoods.co.jp/utility/cupnoodle.html
Lieutenant at 09:45 AM JST - 25th October

Good stuff Dirty Old Joe. Most of that is in Japanese, so to add my two yen, if anyone has any queries and wants to call them, the number there is (Freedial) 0120-923-301.
bamboohat at 10:09 AM JST - 25th October

I don't think that putting poison in food is going to help much in the face of impending global economic slowdown, just an FYI from a bamboo hat wearing keyboard jockey.
ptolemy at 11:47 AM JST - 25th October

Nissin meeting back in March 2008

Boss: Ok guys there is a chemical in some of the noodles, what can we do? Tanaka what do you think?

Tanaka: Boss anything you decide is the best thing to do.

Boss: Thanks Tanaka. Obura, what say you?

Obura: Yes, boss, I agree with Tanaka, what you decide is the best.

Boss: Ok then guys here is the game plan: we keep a lid on this until it is found out. Then we, one, blame China and Chinese ingredients in some way to deflect all responsibility. Or, we just say sorry and bow really deep in a press conference, and shed some fake tears and all will be forgiven, because we are a domestic company. Great, now get back to work.
Freespeech at 04:49 AM JST - 26th October

Paradichlorobenzene is the base chemical that was used in the old style pungent mothballs.
RakishGadfly at 10:32 AM JST - 26th October

At least this means there were no bugs in the noodles.
notimpressed at 09:23 AM JST - 30th October

When comparing this to chinese food contamination scares, most Japanese would just say 'hmm' and carry on. In other words, they wouldn't see a case of the pot and the kettle here at all. There will be no mass panic over Japanese made products being unsafe, no matter how many scandals there are. Japanese only panic about the outside world infringing upon them. That Tokugawa guy has a lot to answer for.