At the beginning of the 20th century, the Japanese discovered that all the rice in Toyama suddenly became "dwarfs" and could not grow tall. 193 1 year, this strange disease finally spread to people, and many local women developed symptoms of low back pain and joint pain. A few years later, these patients had bone pain all over the body and had difficulty breathing. Late bone softening and atrophy, and even coughing may cause fractures. Patients often shout "It hurts"! So this disease is called "pain disease".

It was not until the end of World War II that the Japanese medical community discovered that this "painful disease" was caused by cadmium poisoning caused by wastewater discharged from the upper reaches of Shentongchuan Mine in Toyama Prefecture. High-concentration wastewater polluted the water source, and the rice fields irrigated with this water grew "cadmium rice". Since then, the patient has started a long road to claim compensation and won the case in 1972.

"Minamata disease" incident in 1950s

The name "Minamata disease" is more familiar than "painful disease". Minamata disease refers to a comprehensive disease caused by human or other animals eating fish and shellfish polluted by organic mercury, which makes organic mercury invade brain nerve cells. It is one of the most typical public hazards in the world.

Minamata disease first occurred in Minamata Town, Kumamoto Prefecture, Kyushu, Japan in 1953. Because the cause is unknown, it was called Minamata disease. An acetic acid synthesis plant in Minamata town uses mercury-containing substances as catalysts and then discharges them into the sea with wastewater. At that time, a large number of acaricidal pesticides containing mercury were used in Japanese agriculture, and these pesticides also flowed into the sea near Minamata-CHO with rivers, polluting the marine life in the whole bay, and the local people were poisoned after eating fish.

1955 morinaga milk powder incident

1955, the additives used in the processing of milk powder by Morinaga Milk Powder Company of Japan were reusable non-food raw materials, among which arsenic content was high, which caused more than 12000 children to have fever, diarrhea, hepatomegaly and black skin, and finally 130 children died. To this end, Morinaga has paid more than 600 million yen in compensation.

It's not over. /kloc-the investigation after 0/4 years shows that most of the victims have different degrees of sequelae. Twenty years after the incident, the former head of Morinaga Milk Powder Company was sentenced to three years' imprisonment again, and Morinaga Company once again assumed the liability compensation of about 300 million yen.

Japan's "Waste Oil" Crisis in 1960s

In recent years, news about China gutter oil entering the market has appeared from time to time. In the 1960s, there was also a "gutter oil" crisis in Japan. At that time, Taiwanese businessmen colluded with Japanese businessmen to collect and refine Japanese "gutter oil" and make it into food for export to Taiwan Province Province.

At that time, Japan already had a food hygiene law, which quickly stopped the outflow of waste oil. Sassu, a scholar studying in Japan, once introduced in his blog that Japanese waste oil is now recycled by professional recycling companies and sold to the Japanese government at a higher price. The Japanese government refined these waste oils and added castor oil as fuel for garbage trucks-this oil will cause diarrhea once eaten and is completely inedible.

Summary of Food Safety Events in Japan in 2007

Following the scandal that expired milk was used in a century-old Japanese West Point store at the beginning of 2007, serious counterfeiting incidents occurred in Meathope, a meat processing enterprise in Hokkaido, the sale of expired food in a representative specialty chocolate shop in Hokkaido, and the counterfeiting of "domestic products" by imported cheap eels in Kyushu. A series of food problems have shaken Japanese consumers' confidence in food safety.

In the summer of 2007, after a meat processing enterprise in Kamamu City, Hokkaido was exposed to posing as beef with pork, the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries set up a "food reporting telephone number". By the end of September, there were more than 300 reporting telephones on average every month. A series of food scandals surfaced, in which the famous pastry enterprise Ishiya in Sapporo City, the old shop Chifu in Ise City in Mie Prefecture, and the high-end kiosk Jizhao in Osaka tampered with the shelf life of pudding and fruit ice.

The "Chifu" incident that happened in Japan's religious holy places in June+10, 5438 was undoubtedly another heavy blow to consumer confidence. We visited the most famous Ise Shrine in Japan, and bought back the famous local product "Chifu", a Japanese dim sum shop with a history of 300 years. In fact, it may be food with a forged production date!

On June 65438+1October 65438+February, 2007, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that Chifu Company forged the production date and shelf life. It was found that the company directly sent the products that could not be sold in time back to the cold storage for freezing, and then took them out when necessary, put on new packaging and marked the new production date for sale.

According to media reports here, this freezing, thawing and repackaging practice of Chifu Company began 30 years ago. During the three years from September 2004 to the incident in 2007, Chifu produced 6.05 million boxes of such counterfeit goods, accounting for 18% of its total shipments.

Summary of Food Safety Events in Japan in 2008

According to the Japanese news agency * * and the online editions of Asahi Shimbun and Daily News on June 2, 2008, while the dust of "selling contaminated rice" has not been settled, the incident of "selling rice produced with banned (mercury-containing) pesticides" broke out in the farm affiliated to the Agricultural Life Research Department of the University of Tokyo, causing social dissatisfaction.

According to the University of Tokyo, during the three years from 1997 to 1999, a male technician on his farm used phenylmercuric acetate pesticide in "practicing paddy fields".

After the incident was exposed, the technician told the investigation Committee that he also knew that phenylmercuric acetate pesticide was banned, but rice diseases continued to spread, so he used it.

During the above three years, the "internship paddy field" produced 3.6 tons of rice and sold it to faculty and ordinary consumers, including the canteen of the University of Tokyo.

6543810.2, Junichi James Tien, vice president of the University of Tokyo, held a press conference and apologized to the society: "Sorry for the trouble!" Hamada said that mercury residues in rice and paddy soil will be investigated as soon as possible.

On the afternoon of the 2nd, Seigenji Zhen, director of the Department of Agriculture and Life Sciences of the University of Tokyo, held a briefing for the surrounding residents and also apologized. There are 70 residents who are very angry at the college's behavior: "(I may be uneasy about the rice sold outside) but we have no reason to doubt the rice produced by the Agricultural Life Research Department of the University of Tokyo! I didn't expect us to be cheated! "

According to the University of Tokyo, they stopped selling the rice produced by the farm on September 22, and set up a special investigation committee on September 24 to investigate the relevant personnel, the impact on consumers' health and pesticide residues in the products. So far, there are no reports about the health hazards after eating this rice.

Starting from 1973, Japanese laws prohibit the use of phenylmercury acetate for purposes other than research purposes. Anyone who violates this provision shall be sentenced to fixed-term imprisonment of not more than 3 years, plus a fine of 1 10,000 yen! It is reported that the mercury preparation used by Dongda Farm this time is estimated to have been purchased before 1973.

While the "mercury rice" was exposed, the "problem rice incident" was still burning. The "problem rice incident" refers to a scandal in which Osaka Lisan Food Company disguised moldy "problem rice" limited to industrial use or rice with excessive pesticide residues as edible rice for resale.

Since Seiichi Ota, former Japanese Minister of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, admitted that he failed to handle the "selling of poisoned rice" and resigned, the incident has snowballed.

On September 22nd, Yoshinori Masuhara, then Deputy Minister of the Cabinet Office of Futian, just announced the latest survey results of the circulation process of "problem rice": the number of inflow units has expanded from 375 previously announced to 390. In order to compensate those units that did not know that it was "problem rice", the Japanese government decided to provide support to the injured units whose business was affected by the decline in turnover, in addition to paying part of the cost of recycling and discarding goods.

The education committees of 20 counties, including Osaka Prefecture and Yamanashi Prefecture, announced that more than 6.5438+500,000 copies of egg rolls and egg-wrapped rice, which may contain "problem rice" starch, were used for meals in schools and hospitals.

In addition, according to the survey, there are three national civil servants who belong to the Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, and they have accepted the benefits such as wine and meals provided by Dong Sanmen, the general manager of Li San Food. The incident is still being further processed.

In the same year, a Japanese konjac jelly was under pressure to be removed from the shelves because it killed consumers many times. The Japanese government announced that since 1995, this jelly has caused 17 people to suffocate and die, most of them are children and the elderly. According to the Japanese Consumer Affairs Office, a boy aged/kloc-0 died at the end of September after eating this jelly. However, the merchant has not decided to recall jelly.

Now this 22g bagged jelly has been marked with the words "Not suitable for children and the elderly". This jelly has been banned in the European Union and South Korea.

Japanese government rectifies food safety.

After the Japanese food fraud company hell to pay was discovered, all the foods produced by related companies were removed from the shopping malls. If the food company is a listed company, the stock will plummet, and the final outcome is generally bankruptcy. The president of an enterprise usually resigns first and then accepts legal punishment. The Japanese media are even more eager to pursue, and we must find out the truth.

The Japanese government is also determined to correct this situation. 1 day, Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda asked kishida fumio, Minister of National Life, to conduct a major inspection of the systems and laws directly related to national life, focusing on food, and requested that a report be submitted within this year to find out the loopholes. The National Assembly will propose an amendment next year to make Japan a "country of hope and peace of mind" by improving the laws. It seems that Japan will make great efforts to rectify food safety.

Today, Japan has more than 20 laws directly related to food safety. These laws are mainly aimed at agricultural production, which not only ensures food safety, but also reduces agricultural pollution and protects the ecological environment.

The Japanese government will often revise the laws and regulations on food safety to make the system targeted and operable. In the 1970s, after Japan discovered that pesticides and fertilizers were widely used in aquaculture and planting, it immediately started the revision procedure, set strict residue standards for various pesticides, and strictly restricted the use of antibiotics, pesticides and fertilizers. Since 1995, Japan has revised the Food Hygiene Law more than 10 times, which shows that the system has been followed up frequently.