Japan supermarket chain pulls tainted beans from shelves

China moved quickly to launch an investigation and a food safety official told Japanese diplomats in Beijing that the government was concerned about the possible effect on ties with Tokyo.

At least one woman was briefly hospitalised with vomiting and a numb mouth after eating the green beans imported by Nichirei Foods and sold in Ito-Yokado supermarkets, media reports said.

The Chinese manufacturer of the products, Yantai Beihai Foodstuff Co., told Kyodo news agency it had halted shipments of all its products following the incident.

Tests showed one package of beans contained 34,000 times the permitted level of dichlorvos, a highly toxic insecticide, Japan’s Health Ministry said.

The food scare emerged a month after a scandal over Chinese milk tainted with the industrial chemical melamine, which killed four babies in China, made tens of thousands ill and forced product recalls around the world, including in Japan.

A senior Chinese food safety official told diplomats at Japan’s embassy in Beijing that China was investigating the incident and had already determined that dichlorvos was not used in the cultivation of the beans or in the processing plant.

The official added that the batch of beans had passed all safety tests at Chinese customs, the Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement.

Earlier this year, several Japanese were made ill by Chinese-made dumplings that also contained insecticide, but a joint investigation has so far failed to reveal how the contamination occurred.

“For more than a year, products made in China have caused damage in various places,” Prime Minister Taro Aso told reporters, referring to a previous scandal over Chinese pet food in the United States.

He added that mistrust over food would not be good for either country.

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