Would you like a moth with your chocolate, sir?
A company perhaps little known to you all, but huge in Japan, is called Fujiya. Established back in 1910, it has been a mainstay in Japanese confectionary for almost a century, but a number of scandals have emerged over the past few weeks which could lead the company to complete self-destruction. The co-president (and grandson of the founder), Rintaro Fujii, resigned around 2 weeks ago, but more issues are still coming to light. It’s very possible that he knew this was just the tip of the iceberg and left the ship before it really started to sink.
The first scandal to break was the news that 18 cases had been reported of Fujiya using dairy ingredients that were past their expiry date in their products (http://www.japantoday.com/jp/news/396148). 9 cases involved milk and cream products, 6 cases involved eggs, and other products accounted for the other 3 cases. Now dairy products are not the kind of things that you want to be consuming when they are past their expiry date, as the risk of harmful bacteria entering your body and making you very sick is far too high. At the same time this scandal broke, Fujiya admitted that bacteria levels detected in products in their Sapporo factory had exceeded safe levels between May and July 2005. Now a question has got to be asked of when they found this out. If it was long after this time then the checks they are doing are far too slow. But if it was during this 3 month period, why didn’t they suspend production and sort themselves out.
But then the following week it became apparent that Fujiya has form in this kind of issue. Back in June of 1995 in western Japan, 9 people came down with symptoms of food poisoning. An investigation was started and the outbreak was traced back to a Fujiya factory’s confectionary area. The production line was temporarily suspended while the facility was cleaned and the product recalled. But this outbreak was not publicized by the healthcare centre or local government involved, apparently because the 9 people who were affected, is under the “legal quota” required for public awareness to be necessary. That’s crazy! If a product like that is recalled because of food poisoning, you want to make sure people know about it, regardless of the company’s reputation.
But wait, there’s more! This week it has been discovered that a moth was found in a pack of Look a La Mode (gotta love Japanese French!) chocolates back in 2005. The chocolates were bought in Osaka and produced in Fujiya’s Kanagawa branch. But again, the company managed to cover up the scandal and it’s only just coming out. Their reason for not announcing it was that it was accidental and that the moth would probably not be harmful to anyone’s health. Firstly, the word “accidental”. Does that mean if the moth had been put there intentionally, then they would have told people? Or that it being an accident makes it acceptable. They also said that the moth would probably not be harmful. That’s not really going to fill anyone with faith, is it? An official from Fujiya was reported as saying, “We will try to prevent such things from happening again” as it emerged that insects have been found in 5 Fujiya chocolates.
Fujiya drinks are being removed from vending machines throughout Japan and their confectionary products are being left on the shelves. I’d personally give them about 5 months, 1 more resignation and 2-3 suicides until they go under. Surely the company can’t come back from being rocked like this. Although saying that, Japan is a very strange country… moths in your chocolate could easily become a delicacy!
Until next time take care, dive safely, and look out for insects in your confectionary!
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