business

‘Country of origin’ mislabeling discovered on canned sardines and Pacific saury

10 Comments

A fish processing company in Choshi City, Chiba Prefecture, has been mixing canned mackerel with Pacific saury, in addition to intentionally mislabeling the country of origin for canned sardines and saury.

Canned mackerel that was to be exported by Shida Kanzume, a fish processing company based in Choshi City, was mixed in with Pacific saury, a different species of pelagic fish, despite no mention of the mixture on the label, Fuji TV reported Thursday.

An internal investigation was conducted in which approximately 5 million cans of sardines and Pacific saury were found to have false labels regarding the country of origin where the fish were caught, Fuji TV reported.

A portion of these saury cans displayed the label “Off the Hokkaido Coast,” when in fact, the country of origin was either Taiwan or Aomori Prefecture, Shida Kanzume officials said at a press conference on Wednesday.

One official apologized and said, “There was a difficult time when our fish stocks ran low and we couldn’t secure the proper amount needed in our canned products. In no way did we substitute ingredients and mislabel products to generate a profit.”

A Chiba prefectural government spokesperson said it will conduct its own inspection regarding the mislabeling of canned goods, which is punishable under Japanese law.

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10 Comments
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When your fish stocks run low, you reprint the labels to be truthful.

5 ( +6 / -1 )

One official apologized

giving a saury excuse.

6 ( +8 / -2 )

One official apologized and said, “There was a difficult time when our fish stocks ran low and we couldn’t secure the proper amount needed in our canned products. In no way did we substitute ingredients and mislabel products to generate a profit.”

Oh I get it, that makes it all OK to deceive the public.

6 ( +7 / -1 )

I would have rather eaten the Taiwan fish, rather than one from Hokkaido. There's less chance of Fukushima radiation poisoning.

-8 ( +3 / -11 )

"In no way did we substitute ingredients and mislabel products to generate a profit.”

A statement that just can't be believed.

6 ( +6 / -0 )

"In no way did we substitute ingredients and mislabel products to generate a profit.”

Ummm... except that you did.

Anyway, I always get a chuckle out of knowing this is just the tip of the iceberg when people brag about the superiority of Japanese food but are probably eating products from elsewhere. And their punishment will be.... NOTHING.

4 ( +7 / -3 )

In no way did we substitute ingredients and mislabel products to generate a profit

Only be true if Shida Kanzume is selling at cost or less, which is highly improbable.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

give us an edit button, please

0 ( +0 / -0 )

The word "origin" is highly misleading here. The ocean is a vast network of water. Fish swim all over the ocean, so it's practically impossible to identify the first place that they came from.

Once the public understands the problem that fishing companies face, an apology should do the job.

0 ( +0 / -0 )

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