Russian, Chinese bracken passed off as homegrown by food processor

Sunday 19th April, 04:14 AM JST

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Disillusioned at 10:10 AM JST - 19th April

Buy imported goods only! At least you know it is imported. Yet another example of fine Japanese business ethics.
DentShop at 03:16 PM JST - 19th April

Mmmm... bracken
Potsu at 03:19 PM JST - 19th April

85% of food is imported in this country...naive to believe anything is local anymore.
smithinjapan at 04:04 PM JST - 19th April

Ossan: "I'm really glad I read this JT site. I never knew the word "bracken". We call them ferns or fiddleheads."

I had actually heard that a long time ago, but forget they were called bracken. Until then I had always thought 'bracken' was just another type of seaweed (only hearing the name, of course, never seeing them here). "Fiddlehead" has a much nicer ring to it. Bracken sounds like something you scrape off your shoe.

some14some: "What's the problem with false labelling? consumer enjoyed tasty food, company enjoyed good profit and govt earned good tax revenue. Above all, no health problems reported (so far) !"

You're kidding, right? Japan has some of the tastiest and highest quality produce in Japan, and for that reason (among others) it is the most expensive, often ridiculously so. Taking another nation's products and calling them your own to reduce overhead and increase profit is therefore extremely wrong. Taste is not the issue. If they said where it was actually from, charged less, and people bought, ate, and said it was tasty I wouldn't care.
BBLeo at 06:19 PM JST - 19th April

It is nothing new! The same old story! Why Japan have so much problem in food industry? Is revenue not high enough? At least the two mentioned countries are smart enough to push their food into Japan, making their money. No one got hurt, perhaps only the taxman made fool out of himself. But on the other hand food should be labeled according, for safe public conduct. Is imported food cheaper than local? Doe it taste better than local?
outofmydepth at 08:02 PM JST - 19th April

just another case of greed. you`d think these companies would stop as so many companies are getting caught at this deceitful practice.
elbudamexicano at 09:51 PM JST - 19th April

I wonder if any of this fake Japanese bracken stuff ever made it into Saizeriya??
neverknow2 at 11:11 PM JST - 19th April

Bracken has been shown to be carcinogenic in some animals and is thought to be an important cause of the high incidence of stomach cancer in Japan.

From wiki. Sounds like people should be avoiding this stuff no matters where it is from.
Den Den at 11:17 PM JST - 19th April

Neverknow2 - really? I grow it for eating. Damn.
OssanAmerica at 01:48 AM JST - 20th April

Bracken has been shown to be carcinogenic in some animals and is thought >to be an important cause of the high incidence of stomach cancer in >Japan. From wiki. Sounds like people should be avoiding this stuff no matters >where it is from.

From what I've gathered, In Japan and elsewhere where "bracken" are eaten people boil them first to draw out the toxins. Whether that would be enough to elimniate the carcinogenic aspect, I don't know. But I wouldn't take what's in wiki as rick solid gospel, no one would eat sushi if they did.
bakabaka at 09:49 AM JST - 20th April

Alternatives to the common warabi were being pushed some years ago in Japan as they are not as carcinogenic.
Altria at 11:23 AM JST - 20th April

This incident will really bracken their name.
wanderlust at 01:15 PM JST - 20th April

it began the false labeling in 2004 on instructions from its president.

And not one person in the company suggested it might be illegal, unethical, immoral.... they all went along with the President's instruction?

The feudal mentality remains alive and well in modern Japan.
nandakandamanda at 05:31 PM JST - 20th April

Warabi needs 'Aku-nuki' before becoming edible; it has bicarbonate of soda sprinkled on it, then it is boiled and left overnight to remove the bitterness and the cancer-causing properties.

In the UK bracken usually indicates the large tough open ferns that cover whole hillsides, turning brown into autumn. They are a problem if livestock such as sheep eat them. They can harbour/harbor ticks and adders/vipers.

'Warabi' on the other hand is the delicate fern shoot with the curled head, the younger the better, picked well before it turns into bracken.
Seiryu at 02:50 AM JST - 21st April

Import country-of-origin relabeling is extremely common throughout many idustries, from textiles to machinery parts. But in Japan it's especially popular with agricultural products such as rice due to consumer geographical "brand" perceptions and occasionally to also cheat protectionist tariffs.

There was a story a while ago, I believe, about a farmer mixing shorter-grained rice from China and other countries with Japanese rice. His wife tested it se how much he could mix before anyone would notice. I could imagine the potential profits that might be made with relabelling beef as "Kobe beef". I suspect the overpriced 300JPY cherries are relabeled too.