Pepper Lunch to stop business with meat processing cooperative

Tuesday 08th September, 03:21 PM JST

TOKYO —

Pepper Food Service Co said Tuesday it will stop doing business with a meat processing cooperative in Ogaki, Gifu Prefecture, after some customers at the Tokyo-based firm’s Pepper Lunch steakhouses developed food poisoning. The company also said all of its 187 Pepper Lunch stores across Japan will continue to be closed for a second straight day, while they will stop serving diced beefsteak which is believed to have made at least 25 customers ill from the O-157 strain of E. coli bacteria.

The cooperative had processed the meat used for the diced beefsteak dish. As of Monday night, 25 people who ate the dish at 16 Pepper Lunch steakhouses in 12 prefectures, including Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto, have said they developed food poisoning symptoms.

Pepper Lunch stores serve raw meat on iron plates that are heated to around 260 C and allow customers to eat the meat cooked to their liking.

But to prevent a recurrence of food poisoning incidents, Pepper Food Service said it will not serve the meat raw and ask customers to eat it after it is fully cooked.

In addition, it will inspect all food materials it uses at business partners’ factories where they are processed, the company said.

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Latest 15 of 16 Total Comments Show All

bamboohat at 03:53 PM JST - 8th September

marketing positioning of Pepper Lunch? Up until now, has the main point of differentiation been this cook-yourself offer or are they also very price competitive?

I've only seen them in mall food courts among the usual suspects. Cost is round sen en per plate, give or take.

Serving raw meat at a fast food place, this was bound to happen.
smithinjapan at 03:54 PM JST - 8th September

timorborder: I've never been to Pepper Lunch, but it sounds like a gimmick to me, and I'd bet that along with decent prices this was their main allure (something slightly different). However, it seemed pretty apparent to me from the beginning, based solely on the spread and the fact that it occurred at the same time, that it was the food processor and not the restaurant's sanitary policies. Their only fault, aside obviously from letting customers consume meat they think is cooked well enough, is taking complete blame from the beginning. Their name is going to be remembered before the processor's.
chuckers at 04:00 PM JST - 8th September

The couple of times I have eaten at one, they have offered a very inexpensive diced beefsteak meal. A bit heavy on the moyashi (bean sprouts) but their pepper butter (another selling point) is really good.

Their prices might have to go up after this because now that they have to train their staff to "cook" rather than just carry hot plates to the customers.
chuckers at 04:05 PM JST - 8th September

Their name is going to be remembered before the processor's.

They actually took a lot of heat about two years ago when one of their franchise owners and friends gang raped a woman in the restaurant in Osaka.

http://www.asyura.com/07/nihon27/msg/295.html
smithinjapan at 04:22 PM JST - 8th September

chuckers: I actually forgot about that case -- or at least forgot it was Pepper Lunch. Perhaps because where they choose to rape someone might not have so much to do with the restaurant management? Then again, I seem to remember something dodgy about the whole ordeal.....
sk4ek at 04:37 PM JST - 8th September

I read somewhere that Pepper Lunch offers such low prices by using the cheapest cuts of offshore beef, injected with beef fat, frozen, and cubed (the fat injection machine was quite a sight--it was featured on some TV show a while back). Many MANY opportunities for contamination and mis-handling (the steak chain VOLKS had a similar problem a couple of years ago). They've popped up all over Tokyo, trying to draw in the salaryman crowd that might otherwise hit one of the beef bowl joints.
Disillusioned at 05:04 PM JST - 8th September

Of course the contamination had to be from the processing plant. However, they will only have lost 40% of their business because 60% of Japanese don't watch the TV news or read newspapers. There is a possibility they will lose another 20% from the 'urban myth' believers too. Either way, they will go the way of the Do Do. Bye, bye, Pepper lunch!
cow76 at 09:36 PM JST - 8th September

60% of Japanese don't watch the TV news or read newspapers. Lucky there's no such thing as word of mouth or this comment would come across as incredibly dumb.
Klein2 at 10:41 PM JST - 8th September

Disillusioned. Oh. Rumors of their demise are certainly exaggerated. Lemme see. Meiji milk, Ito ham, Glico, I could probably find another 10 companies that have been involved in food tainting scandals and bounce right back.

As I said in previous posts, people do not know what they are eating or where it comes from, and they don't care. It is not an exaggeration to say that there is no way for the average person to know that they are not eating SOYLENT GREEN when they eat any ground meat product. Most people just trust the system, for better or worse.

Think about what this really represents and then watch as it gets swept under the rug. People paid for food that made them violently ill. But they will be back in droves when the doors open. A coupon will be all that is necessary. One could decide that the system cannot guarantee safety and could seek instead to prepare their own food and be more careful about what they eat. One could alternatively decide to ignore the problem and continue with life as though nothing happened. Which is more likely?
BurakuminDes at 11:46 PM JST - 8th September

Simple solution: ALWAYS INSIST on 100 percent Aussie Beef. Safest beef in the world. I have no faith in the meat processing in Japan - God knows what goes on behind closed doors, and who even knows where the meat came from. It's probably worse that was highlighted in the States in "Fast Food Nation". IF IT ISN'T AUSSIE BEEF - WALK OUT OF THE RESTAURANT! Better still, buy it yourself and cook it yourself! Bugger this "Pepper Ranchi" rubbish...
kidoave at 11:51 PM JST - 8th September

blame it on the Supplier!?!?........Pepper should had installed a strict Quality Control before they opened their Restaurant.

Hello Japan Minister of State for Science and Technology Policy and Food Safety plus Minister of Consumer Affairs, you should act on this.
Fadamor at 04:46 AM JST - 9th September

The meat processor (better known as the slaughterhouse) is where the risk of E-coli contamination exists. Once the meat has left the plant, the chance of fecal matter coming in contact with the beef drops to almost 0%. Someone who is sloppy carving up the carcass can rupture the intestines, spreading contamination all over. So the slaughterhouses are where the government needs to clamp down on.
bdiego at 06:08 AM JST - 9th September

Exactly, the slaughterhouse is the primary source of contaminants. Cross contamination can happen for the food preparer if they don't wash the knives between cuts.
bdiego at 06:13 AM JST - 9th September

The irony is if you don't know how to sear beef safely at Pepper Lunch, you probably don't know how to do it at home either. Fast food and steak are a risky combination for this reason.
gaijintraveller at 08:32 AM JST - 9th September

So who else does business with the cooperative? Other food chains? Supermarkets?

Has the Ministry of Health and Welfare checked or closed it down?