Fake Japanese food products rampant in Taiwan

The Yomiuri reports that food falsely labeled as Japanese is being sold all over Taiwan:

At a vegetable and fruit market, pears believed to be South Korean in origin were wrapped with a paper printed as “Products of Hita, Oita Prefecture.” Carrots and onions produced in China were sold as Japanese products, contained in cardboard boxes with the printed trademarks and logos of “Hokuren” and “JA Kitamirai,” both of which are names of agricultural cooperatives in Hokkaido.

“Since the melamine cases [in Chinese food products] came to light, labeling foods as ‘Chinese products’ has had a negative impact on sales,” a Thomson examiner quoted a person in charge of sales at one of the Taiwanese markets as saying.

A Taipei department store also sold mackerel without permission using the trademark Seki no Sensaba, which is used by a producer of Oita Prefecture.

Frozen scallops were also found in a package claiming its contents were “Products of Hokkaido, the Sea of Okhotsk.”

Japanese producers confirmed that both the mackerel and scallops in question were not of Japanese origin.

There also were cases in which consumers were led to misunderstand the origin of products. Milk was sold in a plastic bottle labeled “Hokkaido” on the front, but also “Made in Taiwan” in small letters on the bottom. Pork was sold as “Matsuzaka pork,” which obviously derived from the top Japanese “Matsuzaka beef” brand.

• Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
• dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
• Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)