Japan food additive scandal: two new suspicious deaths

This brings to four the number of deaths in Japan believed to be caused by food additives made from yeast rice called beni koji, or red yeast rice. The Japanese pharmaceutical group Kobayashi Pharmaceutical announced this Thursday two new deaths potentially related to these supplements.

This yeast is marketed as a natural anti-cholesterol, but research has also warned for years about its potential dangers: depending on its chemical composition, it can damage organs such as the liver or kidneys.

Kobayashi Pharmaceutical and Japanese health authorities are also investigating more than one hundred hospitalizations in Japan potentially also related to these dietary supplements. The two people whose deaths were reported by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical used one of the three product lines incriminated, the company said.

“We are in the process of verifying the facts and cause-and-effect relationships in these cases,” continued the pharmaceutical group based in Osaka, western Japan, which last week announced a massive recall of its suspect products.

Recall of several derivative products

However, as early as January, the company received the first reports of kidney problems among consumers potentially related to its dietary supplements.

“It is unfortunate that Kobayashi Pharmaceutical did not provide information to the government while the company was conducting an investigation to determine the cause” of the problems, Health Minister Keizo Takemi said earlier this week.

The firm also said it supplied red yeast rice to about fifty other companies in Japan, many of which have decided to recall various derivative products such as sparkling sake, salad dressings and fermented soybean paste (“miso”). Kobayashi Pharmaceutical also sold its yeast to two Taiwanese companies.

“Relevant ministries and agencies are working together to ensure food safety, including seeking to identify the substance causing harm to health and understand how it got into the product,” government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi added. The government has also asked other dietary supplement manufacturers to test their products and is informing foreign countries about the health issue, he added.

“Once the cause is identified, the government will consider the necessary measures” to prevent a similar incident from happening again, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida promised in parliament yesterday.