Company intentionally mislabled Chinese bamboo shoots
The latest company to be found misleading consumers by labeling imported products as Japanese:
According to the ministry, between September last year and June, Marukyo sold about 1.4 million packages of 20 types of bamboo shoot products, or 289 tons, labeled as made in Japan, although the firm was aware that a portion of the bamboo shoots in the packages came from China. The products were sold to supermarkets in the Kanto and Kinki regions.
The firm has told ministry officials, “We couldn’t get enough bamboo shoots because demand for the domestic ones suddenly increased.” It added, “Consumers started avoiding food imported from China, so we wanted to get rid of our stock of Chinese bamboo shoots.”
