In the latest chapter of the long-running Chinese food-safety saga, a Japanese woman fell ill on Sunday after eating frozen Chinese beans containing 34,500 time the legal pesticide limit.
The woman felt numb in her mouth after eating the beans, but was released from hospital with no apparent health problems after an overnight check.
Japan’s health ministry ordered retailers to remove the beans from sale on Wednesday, according to AFP, “until the cause of the incident becomes clear”.
The importer of the product, Nichirei Foods, said it had tested samples of the beans before importing them and found no traces of pesticides.
The beans were sourced from Chinese company Yantai Beihai Foodstuff and grown in Heilongjiang province, an area where there was no record of pesticide use, according to Nichirei Foods.
Japan has been on the receiving end of a number of Chinese food safety problems. The country imports about 60 per cent of its food, much of it from neighbouring China.
Pesticides in Chinese dumplings poisoned ten people in Japan in December and January this year, and Chinese milk products tainted with melamine killed at least four children in recent months, and made 53,000 people ill.
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