Photo/Illutration “Asari” clams about to be cooked (The Asahi Shimbun)

Consumers’ faith in food labelling has been shaken yet again by scandal.

This latest outrage over a widespread practice of falsely labelling foreign “asari” Japanese shortneck clams as “produced in Kumamoto” calls for a thorough investigation to determine how the fraud was accomplished and who should be held responsible to ensure effective countermeasures are taken.

Unfortunately, there seems to be no end to endemic lying about the origin of agricultural, marine and livestock products. Sadly, it is not unusual for authorities at the central and local level to expose and demand corrective action on more than 10 such cases each year.

However, the scandal over fake “Kumamoto asari” is an eye-opener. 

Japan imports substantial quantities of asari from China and South Korea. But according to agriculture and fisheries ministry estimates based on surveys of the nation’s major supermarket chains, asari labeled as “domestic” accounted for 99 percent of the volume sold between October and December last year, of which about 80 percent bore the “produced in Kumamoto” label. 

But Kumamoto’s asari haul in 2020 fell well below its annual average and registered only 21 tons out of the nationwide total of 4,400 tons.

DNA tests carried out by the agricultural and fisheries ministry at the time of the supermarket survey found that 30 of 31 packages labeled as “Kumamoto asari” were of foreign origin.  

Back in the 1970s, 40 percent of Japan’s clams came from Kumamoto, establishing the latter as a must-buy brand.

It emerged that clam import and distribution dealers took advantage of this brand image to cheat consumers, and the scam was an open secret for years. How is it possible for such deliberate falsification to go unchecked for so long?

The blame lies in the vertical compartmentalization of the functions of the central and local government agencies concerned: the Consumer Affairs Agency and the agricultural and fisheries ministry that oversee food labelling, and the Kumamoto prefectural government and other local administrative entities.

This setup clearly does not work and has got to stop. The parties concerned need to work together with law enforcement authorities to get to the bottom of this scandal as soon as possible. 

The Kumamoto prefectural government, working in tandem with the prefectural federation of fisheries associations, recently slapped a two-month suspension on clam shipments, during which time the government hopes to devise steps to stamp out such fraudulent practices once and for all.

Under Japan’s food labelling rules, any seafood cultivated in two or more locations may be labeled as being from a single location, based on where the product spent the longest time.

Concluding that this rule was abused, Kumamoto Prefecture has proposed to the central government that asari be exempted from it. The prefecture also called for the establishment of a traceability system, which is required by law for beef and rice to eliminate fraud.

According to Kumamoto Prefecture, examinations of past transactions by asari import dealers have been rendered impossible due to poor record-keeping.

For all enterprises involved in distribution, one of the basic rules of business is to keep accurate records of every transaction--including those of domestic products--on everything from production and import to wholesale, retail and food service.

But as medium- to small-scale operators are said to bypass this burdensome process, the prefecture needs to come up with measures that will win over those reluctant operators.

One spinoff of the asari scandal on Kumamoto Prefecture is a sudden decline in the sale of larger and more succulent “hamaguri” clams. We urge consumers to deal sensibly with the situation. However, the public’s reaction serves as a strong indication of awareness about food safety.

We hope the asari scandal will bring the public and private sectors together in renewed resolve to eliminate false advertising on food origin.

--The Asahi Shimbun, Feb. 11            

Related News