It's time for wine, rocky with sake and boo for shochu

Ahhhhhhhh!! So much for getting my drink on! Across the paddies and orchards of rural Japan, the autumn harvest festival season is usually a riotously boozy affair. It is a moment to rejoice in nature's bounty and to honour the local deity by drinking - occasionally immodestly - in its honour. Favourite draughts include distilled shochu, and the weaker, sweeter, saké rice wine.In the past week more than a million bottles of shochu and saké - drinks made from rice - have been recalled over safety fears. The company behind the best-selling Japanese beer, Asahi Breweries, has removed 650,000 bottles of shochu from the shelves of off-licences and supermarkets in Japan.With the harvest festival season in full swing, the Japanese drinking public fears that there may be far more to the scandal than has been revealed.Japanese brewer and beverage makers have announced massive product recalls in connection with rice miller Mikasa Foods’ illegal sales of non-edible rice for edible use, with the number of bottles of recalled sake and ‘‘shochu’’ drinks topping 1 million across Japan by Saturday. The rush of product recalls began immediately after the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries Ministry announced on Sept 5 that the Osaka-based rice miller had illegally sold rice contaminated with methamidophos, a toxic pesticide, or aflatoxin, a toxic moldy substance, for edible use.Some of the pesticide-tainted Chinese rice sold by Mikasa Foods Co. was eventually labeled as U.S. rice as it went through a complicated distribution network that comprised nine brokers, sources said.Makers of the distilled alcoholic drink shochu, mostly in Kyushu, and beverage maker Asahi Breweries Ltd., whose sales channels cover the nation, began recalls of their products, saying they had used rice bought from Mikasa as an ingredient.Later, concerns over the tainted rice spread further among nationwide consumers as it was found that rice from Mikasa had been sold to hospitals and nursing facilities for making meals, as well as to other rice millers, food ingredient wholesalers and makers of Japanese sweets.So far, the tainted rice was used to make Satsuma Hozan shochu, and it was reportedly not used in eight other brands produced by the company.Mikasa Foods Co., an Osaka-based wholesaler that sold industrial-use rice unfit for human consumption to food manufacturers, will lay off its entire payroll, a high-ranking company official said Tuesday, citing fallout from the scandal.The executive told The Asahi Shimbun that the company plans to lay off its entire workforce of about 100 full-time employees, contract workers and part-timers. The official said that some of the full-time employees will be rehired by the parent company, a rice wholesaler.Employees who are transferred will continue in the business of rice processing and selling operations.While the company will close operations at its rice cooking and processing factory in Toyonaka, Osaka Prefecture, it will maintain its Kyushu factory in Chikuzen, Fukuoka Prefecture, which bought up government stocks of contaminated rice imported from China and other countries.Mikasa has been inundated with complaints from its business partners saying they plan to sever their business ties with the scandal-ridden company."With the problem becoming so big, it is impossible to take care of the livelihoods of all our employees," the executive said, adding that Mikasa decided to focus on paying dismissal compensation.Meanwhile, moves to recall or stop serving shochu (grain spirits) have spread to retailers and restaurants.Major izakaya chain operators Watami Co. and Monteroza Inc., along with restaurant chain Skylark Co., stopped serving Satsuma Hozan, a popular brand of shochu, as of Monday after its manufacturer Nishi Shuzo began recalling the product.Officials at Nishi Shuzo said there was a possibility that some of the rice it purchased from Mikasa Foods was used to make rice malt, a shochu ingredient. The distiller announced it has stopped shipments of Satsuma Hozan and would recall about 300,000 bottles already in the market.Supermarket chain operators Aeon Co. and Ito-Yokado Co., along with convenience store chain Circle K Sunkus Co., have also begun removing related products from their shelves.Contaminated rice was also sold to manufacturers of senbei rice crackers.The price of the tainted rice soared more than 40-fold from 8.9 yen per kilogram to 370 yen during the process.The Kinki branch of Nissin Healthcare Food Service Co. ordered U.S. rice from Daiwa Shokai, the final broker in the distribution chain, and bought about 704 kilograms between May 1 and Sept. 8.The caterer supplied the rice to 119 facilities in six prefectures in the Kinki region, mainly hospitals and nursing homes for the elderly.The rice was cooked at these facilities and served as sekihan rice with red beans and other dishes for employees, patients and others.The Kyoto city government has detected 0.02 parts per million of methamidophos, double the standard under the Food Sanitation Law, from rice stored at a nursing care facility for the elderly in the city, one of the 119 facilities.Separately, the same concentration of methamidophos was detected in rice stored at a Kyoto nursery school, which bought rice directly from Daiwa Shokai, based in Sakai, Osaka Prefecture.Nissin Healthcare Food Service paid 370 yen per kilogram to Daiwa Shokai.The rice went through seven other companies, many in Fukuoka and Osaka prefectures, before it reached Daiwa Shokai. An official at Daiwa Shokai said the company ordered U.S. rice because Nissin Healthcare Food Service requested U.S. grain. The official also said the bags of rice the company received carried stickers that purported that the rice was produced in the United States.SourceFor the rest of the story click here and here.