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New evidence suggests Chinese-made dumplings were indeed contaminated in China

With the Olympics just days away, the Japanese press has discovered new information in the case of the Chinese-made gyoza that poisoned Japanese people earlier this year:

Dumplings made by China’s Tianyang Food Co. that sickened Japanese consumers in the past year may have also caused cases of poisoning in China, the Yomiuri newspaper said, citing unidentified people with knowledge of the matter.

Chinese officials informed Japan last month of the cases that occurred in June, the report said.

The Chinese victims showed symptoms of being sickened by methamidophos, a pesticide that was also detected in the Japanese cases, the Yomiuri said. The number of Chinese affected and the extent of their symptoms wasn’t known, the report said.

A earlier investigation by Chinese authorities had concluded that Tianyang was not at fault and official statements had implied that the contamination occurred in Japan:

Yu Xinmin, a senior official with the Ministry of Public Security, said that “after careful investigation and tests, we believe there is little chance that methamidophos [the pesticide] was put into dumplings in China”.

12 comments - What do you think? Posted by James - August 6, 2008 at 1:09 pm

Categories: General Japan Tags: china, food safety, japan

LeslieC

Well, if “unidentified people” say so then it must be true. And the timing, that Japan’s largest newspaper rehashes the China-scare story one day before China opens their Olympics, well surely that’s just a coincidence.

Like the sharp drop in Japan Tobacco’s share prices days before (*cough*insidertrading*cough*) the recall was announced; or the sudden cessation of media coverage when it was discovered that other packages of dumplings from the same batch from the same factory were fine (suggesting the Japanese regional distribution center was the site where the contamination took place). These were also, undoubtedly, just coincidences.

My crystal ball says that if Japanese athletes under-perform at Beijing, the media here will at least partially blame that on China, by having Japanese experts declare that the air is not good or the water is suspect or the food has something in it.

Level3

So because you claim other packages from the same batch were fine, it means that the contamination couldn’t have happened there in the factory?
More than a bit of a stretch and bad logic.

Either way, accidental or intentional, it would be very unlikey that ALL packs of gyoza from a “batch” (how big is a batch?) were uniformly contaminated… the chances of uniform contamination decreasing exponentially with the size of the batch, unless you’re assuming they were contaminated only at the very start of the mixing process, which is possible, but it can’t be assumed to be absolute, as you seem to do.

Still, with China’s Third World food safety standards (still using “night soil” AKA human excrement as fertilizer, and basically serving as the breeding ground for avian flu due to lax farming/livestock regulations).
And Japan’s terrible record of food safety AND deliberate poisonings by psycho Japanese people.
It’s almost all speculation,

except when it comes to the actual kind of poison, which from most reports, seems to be much more available in China than Japan. Meaning contamination could be from multiple entry points in China either deliberate or accidental, or a few people in Japan who would have access to the poison, thus a greater chance of deliberate poisoning if Japanese.

Further speculation, nobody died, so it might be less likely as deliberate poisoning.
At least I ADMIT it’s all basically guesswork.
You should, too.

It would be a case for a Sherlock Holmes, or a half-competent police/investigation force (in China or Japan) free from government interference.

Both are fantasies.

helical

I wonder if Japan should start jumping up and down and waving her hands around wildly demanding an apology from China. It’s not like there’s a lack of examples to follow.

Also, the same gyoza that was recalled in Japan later appeared on store shelves in China, which is how the Chinese were poisoned.(sorry, too lazy to find an English article)
http://headlines.yahoo.co.jp/hl?a=20080805-00000061-yom-soci

So I had the initial urge to point and laugh since “they” (the all-encompassing group of “the Chinese”) were *so* confident that it was Japan’s fault for the poisoning, but then I kind of realized the unsuspecting people who were fed these gyoza are as much victims as any Japanese citizen poisoned, and the real people who should have been punished are the idiots who put these recalled dumplings back on the market, regardless of who they thought was responsible for the poisoning.

The Yahoo article says the China told Japan back in July during the summit meeting, so it’s more of a question of why the news agencies kept this under wraps until now.
Guesses are it could be because of fear of losing airing rights to the Olympic games if heaven forbid they displeased the Chinese overlords, but then they felt spiteful after their brethren were beaten by the Chinese police on Monday and so they decided to spill this story after all.

stereo

“demanding an apology from China.”

No, you are wrong. Japan demands safty, not an apology.
Get a Job, Son!

Here is an english version…
http://search.japantimes.co.jp/cgi-bin/nn20080807a1.html

Level3 has a logical thought process… the poison is banned in Japan,but used in China. Of course it happened at the factory.

Level3

Logic only says it is LIKELY that the poisoning happened in China.
Maybe just pesticide in the ingredients (onions?garlic?cabbage?) just not washed off.
Maybe pesticide got in later by a spill.
Maybe intentional poisoning.

Even if the pesticide is banned in Japan, I assume that chemists, graduate students, farming safety inspectors/trainers, could also have access to it, maybe even old farmers might have old supplies.
But that all makes it extremely unlikely that an accidental contamination happened. How would the people with access to the pesticide also be involved in gyoza distribution? Why would an illegal pesticide be in a gyoza distribution plant or a supermarket? It doesn’t make sense.

The most likely explanation is accidental contamination in China, and the recent reports that the same thing happened in China (THE TIMING OF THE REPORT DOESN’T MATTER) then it makes it extremely likely. Contamination in China would also make the Japan-hating-deliberate-poisoning scenario less likely. Why poison Chinese, too?

Second most likely is deliberate contamination, but I’d wager 80/20 on the China vs. Japan. Plenty of Chinese are brainwashed to hate Japan and would have easier access to the pesticide (biggest factor), but there are lots of cases of Japanese people poisoning food, and plenty of Japanese who like to cast doubt on the safety of Chinese foods.

Of course, you can go into deeper levels that require conspiracy nut thinking of people who watch X-Files too much.

It’s still mostly guesswork, but it keeps looking more and more like it happened in China by accident.

ponta

That is logical and that’s about all we can say about this news.
Get a Job, Son!

Yes L3… I am with you on the accidental poisoning point (food not washed properly etc) as the most likely source.
There might be a slim chance of some deliberate poisoning as an anti-Japan statement.
If this is the case then the poisonings in China would then also have been accidental. The poisoner would not have controlled the stock after packing and distribution. Furhter, if the rejected (by Japan) batches were returned (and not destroyed) and re-sold, then that is another route (and possibly criminally negligent by the stock owner).

ponta

　2008年8月6日　Asahi
【北京＝峯村健司】中国製冷凍ギョーザの中毒事件に関連して、中国国内で回収された製造元の天洋食品（中国河北省）のギョーザを食べた中国人に中毒症状が出たことについて、中国外務省は６日、朝日新聞の取材に対して、「中国内でも６月中旬、ギョーザによる中毒事件が発生していた」と認めた。しかし天洋食品の製品かどうかについての回答はなかった

http://www.asahi.com/international/update/0806/TKY200808060327.html?ref=reca
Chinese foreign ministry admitted, in respond to the interview from Asahi, that the Chinese-made Dumplings poisoned Chinese people in Jun. It didn’t answer whether the dumplings was made by Tianyang.
morningstar

China must be charged with federal law . The Dumpling making company were trying to hurt and kill as many Japanese as possible?
Mister M

Man… Chinese still believe that they are right. That proves how brainwashed those people are.
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New evidence suggests Chinese-made dumplings were indeed contaminated in China

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