[whiteperil] Sean: Mystery meat

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Posted by Sean:
Mystery meat
http://whiteperil.com/posts/1182857721.shtml


   [1]One of the Nikkei editorials today is about the latest food
   processing scandal: fraudulent labels on meat. [2]Helpful background
   can be gleaned from the Asahi English edition:

     Meat Hope Co. routinely committed 13 types of misconduct over 24
     years, including mislabeling its products, falsifying use-by dates
     and mixing intestines into ground meat, the farm ministry said.
     The scandal-ridden meat processor based in Tomakomai, Hokkaido,
     dismissed all of its employees Tuesday in a sign that the company
     will soon fold. Meat Hope's production line was halted last
     Wednesday, when the company admitted to mixing pork into
     "100-percent" beef products over seven to eight years.
     But the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries found
     during an on-site inspection that Meat Hope's misconduct was much
     more extensive and went further back.
     The ministry determined that Meat Hope's wrongdoings had been
     willfully conducted on a systematic basis on the orders of
     President Minoru Tanaka and other executives.
     ...
     Falsifying use-by dates was another common tactic, according to the
     ministry.
     On a day-to-day basis, the company falsified the use-by date for
     products by moving forward their processing date by one day.

   The use-by date shenanigans are a big, big deal in Japan, where many
   favored dishes use half-raw meat. What the Nikkei understandably wants
   to know is...

     Why was this misconduct not detected earlier? In February of last
     year, information that would have [constituted] a charge of
     misconduct was said to have been gathered, but cooperative action
     was not taken by agriculture ministry officials and the Hokkaido
     prefectural government. Without a rapid response, measures to
     protect (internal) whistleblowers cannot be instituted in order to
     aid in stopping legal infractions.

   At least one other food processor that was a client of Meat Hope's has
   been [3]implicated in the manipulation of sell-by dates, too.

References

   1. http://www.nikkei.co.jp/news/shasetsu/20070625AS1K2500225062007.html
   2. http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706260275.html
   3. http://www.asahi.com/english/Herald-asahi/TKY200706260090.html