Japan Tobacco to Open Quality Control Site in China - Report

Source from:  iii.co.uk TOKYO (Thomson Financial) 03/03/2008

Japan Tobacco Inc has decided to set up a quality control center in China to beef up its inspection of local companies that supply food products for the Japanese market, the Nikkei reported at the weekend, without citing sources. The move follows cases of food poisoning among Japanese consumers who had eaten frozen dumplings that subsidiary JT Foods Co had imported from China, the business newspaper said. Japan Tobacco, or JT, plans to station quality control personnel at the center and begin routine inspections of local suppliers' factories. Under an existing system, the company sends quality control personnel from Japan from time to time to be briefed by local suppliers on various test results and defective products, the report said. Aside from setting up the quality control site in China, JT intends to introduce unified quality control standards for all Japanese and overseas facilities that supply frozen food products to group companies. The JT group operates frozen food factories both in Japan and overseas and subcontracts production of such items to companies in China, the US, Thailand and Vietnam. Under the new quality control regime, all these operations are to obtain internationally recognized quality control certifications, such as the ISO 9000 and ISO 22000. In addition, JT plans to check pesticide usage at farms that provide ingredients and test for trace pesticides in prepared food materials, the Nikkei said. It also aims to step up tests for microbes and damage to products and packages at factories. JT will suspend dealings with Tianyang Food at least until the exact cause of the pesticide contamination is found, but it intends to continue subcontracting food production to other Chinese companies. Imports from China accounted for around 20 percent of JT's refrigerated food sales of roughly 50 billion yen for the year through March 31, 2007. Enditem