Japan: 2nd Pesticide in China Dumplings

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TOKYO — Tests found a second type of pesticide in dumplings made by a Chinese company whose products sickened at least 10 people in Japan and set off a nationwide panic over food safety, a supermarket chain said Wednesday.

Japanese Consumer Cooperative Union, a retailer, said tests detected the chemical dichlorvos in both the filling and dough of frozen dumplings made in June by China's Tianyang Food Processing Ltd.

Tianyang was the producer of dumplings contaminated with the pesticide methamidophos that were blamed for a string of illnesses in western and central Japan since December.

China and Japan have sent teams of investigators to each other's country in recent days to determine the cause of the methamidophos contamination, which some Japanese officials suspect may have been deliberate.

While it was not immediately clear whether the two contaminations were related, the latest disclosure heightened Japanese fears over the safety of products from China, a growing source of cheap foods in high-priced Japan.

"The most important task is to prevent damage from spreading and all we can do is to find out what was the cause and what really happened," Japanese Health Minister Yoichi Masuzoe said Wednesday. "What we need primarily is cooperation between Japan and China."

The two countries have agreed to improve their information sharing, Shigeru Hotta, assistant vice minister for quality of life policy at Japan's Cabinet Office, told reporters after talks between Japanese and Chinese food safety officials in Tokyo.

"We agreed to cooperate and find out what caused the problem quickly," said Li Chunfeng, head of Chinese delegation. "I swear that Chinese food is safe."

In the dichlorvos contamination, dumplings were recalled after a worker at one of the consumer union's outlets complained of an oil-like odor in November, the union, widely known as Co-op, said in a statement Tuesday.

Tests conducted by Co-op this week found traces of dichlorvos, it said. Previous tests late last year on the dumplings' packaging found traces of other chemicals, but no pesticide tests were conducted.

A total 10 parts per million of dichlorvos was detected in the dumplings — 110 ppm in the dough and 0.42 ppm in the filling, according to Co-op's statement. Japanese residue limits for the pesticide are 1 ppm in wheat and 0.1 ppm in cabbage, both ingredients of the dumplings.

A Co-op spokeswoman, speaking on condition of anonymity under company policy, confirmed the findings Wednesday.

There have been no reports of health problems stemming from dumplings made the same day as those tested by Co-op, but the level of insecticide would exceed the amount allowed for a person weighing 110 pounds if two dumplings are consumed, the Japanese newspaper Asahi reported.

The methamidophos contamination set off a nationwide scare last week. Authorities have ordered the recall of millions of bags of dumplings and other foods made by Tianyang, while many stores and restaurants in Japan have stopped offering Chinese products altogether.

Traces of the insecticide were found in the dumplings, on the packaging and in the vomit of the 10 people who were sickened. The 10 cases involved two separate brands containing similar dumplings.

Investigators in western Japan also found traces of methamidophos in six bags of the dumplings recalled over the weekend.

Punctures were found in a handful of the bags that were recalled or linked to poisonings.

China's product safety agency conducted tests on the ingredients of Tianyang dumplings from the same batch sent to Japan, but found none of the insecticide cited by Japanese authorities.

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