Closeup Japan
The dumpling puzzle leaves a bitter taste
DUMPLING is a tasty food item devoured by the lovers of Chinese cuisine. Like many things making their way into Japan from the Asian mainland of China, the dumpling, too, made its headway eastward long back in history, and since then has become an essential part of the Japanese diet.
The statistical figure of dumpling consumption in Japan within a given period of time is presumed to be astronomical, and a large part of this widely consumed food item, like many other essential items of today's Japan, is coming from the land of its origin in frozen form. The motive behind such import is obviously to cut the cost of Japanese supply chain, as procurement of items through import from the places where they are available at a much more competitive price is considered essentially lucrative from the business perspective.
Since Japan has implemented a very strict food quarantine law to protect the country's food market from the harmful penetration of unhealthy items from abroad, nothing was seen to be wrong in the import of dumplings from China as long as quarantine measures were in place. As a result, despite recent incidents in other parts of the world resulting in the erosion of trust on the safety standard of Chinese made products, Japanese food importers continued to depend on China for a number of essential food items.
This sense of security is now swiftly eroding due to a recent food poisoning incident, alleged to have spread from dumplings imported from China.
The news of food poisoning from Chinese dumpling was first reported in the media towards the end of January. Ten people from two different families residing far apart from each other were reported to have fallen ill after eating China-made frozen dumplings, popularly known in Japan as Gyoza.
According to police sources, tainted dumplings that the families consumed contained pesticide residue. Soon after, food-store chains and restaurants all over Japan went into full alert as they suspected a nationwide panicky situation might have serious repercussions on their business. Retailers removed all dumplings from shelves, and restaurants put up special signs saying either their Gyozas were safe or they were not the imported variety.
New incidents of health complaints were reported in following days, which eventually prompted the Japanese government to formally file a protest with the Chinese administration. Foreign Minister Masahiko Komura met the visiting Chinese assistant foreign minister, He Yafei, last Thursday and, in addition to expressing concern about various problems with food products from China, asked Beijing for cooperation in investigating the latest incident.
The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, meanwhile, asked companies to stop sales of all products from the food processing plants in China's Hebei province, which had been identified earlier as the source of the tainted dumplings.
For China, the incident came as another serious blow after a series of scandals involving food and drugs imported from China last year shattered consumers' trust in Chinese made products. In 2007, hundreds of cats and dogs died in the United States and elsewhere after eating pet food made from ingredients imported from China. This was followed by toothpaste-related deaths in a number of countries in Central and South America.
As Panama and other countries of the region came to realise the hard truth about the stream of cheap products coming from China, the Western media revealed a new scandal involving paints used in Chinese made toys.
Chinese authorities were compelled to launch a through investigation to find out what really went wrong, and eventually tightened control over the manufacturers of items that harmed the country's image as an emerging industrial power. A number of plants identified as problematic were forced to shut down, and others had to go through strict quality control scrutiny.
As one of the leading destinations of Chinese-made products, Japan, too, had her due share of the harmful effects of Chinese commodities during the recent past. In 2002, imports of frozen Chinese spinach were withheld following reports of extremely high level of pesticide residue.
In the same year, more than 700 people suffered from liver malfunctioning and other disorders after consuming Chinese made dietary supplements. In 2005, it was again diet food, believed to be of Chinese origin that caused dizziness and nausea among the users. Those incidents prompted Japan to adopt stricter pesticide residue standards and tighter control over imported drugs and food items.
But the recent dumpling incident shows that the parties, both in China and in Japan, might have failed to learn the lessons from the past mistakes. If China is to blame for not being careful enough with the shipment of tainted dumplings to Japan, though logical understanding doesn't make it convincing that a company producing the dumpling would do so intentionally, as this would mean the virtual killing of the business deal they are involved in, the Japanese side too is to take part of the blame for being lax in enforcing the strict quarantine law and thus allowing tainted food items to penetrate Japanese market.
In China, there are more than 6,000 companies that process food items for export to Japan, and around 20 million people are involved in agricultural production targeting the Japanese market. In the past three years, almost 100 percent Chinese food products passed Japanese quarantine inspection. The dumpling incident would most likely prompt the authorities to tighten further the inspection system for food items imported from China.
It still remains a mystery how the dumplings got tainted with pesticide residue. The Chinese factory that produced the dumplings denied any wrongdoing, and said that the records of chemicals kept at the plant's warehouse, starting from December 2006, does not mention the name of the chemical that has been detected in dumpling packets.
Meanwhile, a team of Chinese experts is now in Tokyo to discuss the matter with Japanese officials. The Japanese police are investigating the case, and have so far failed to find any definite clue that might identify the perpetrators of the criminal act. As of last Sunday, the total number of people who reported feeling nauseous after eating frozen food products from China was recorded to be a little over 1,200.
For politicians, who are always in search of the right opportunity to blame the other side that they love to hate, a definite conclusion is not what they look for. As long as suspicion remains they would love to take the full advantage of the situation, and the dumpling-poisoning incident once again revealed that dubious side of their character.
For China-bashers in Japan, there can be no better moment to intensify the attack, and some of them have already made headlines with their loud claims. Taro Aso, the former Japanese foreign minister, said last Saturday that Japan's agricultural cooperatives should be grateful to China for enhancing the value of Japanese food with its allegedly dangerous dumplings. So, another war in a different front continues as usual.
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