Japan's fifth mad cow disease hit consumer confidence again

Introduction: new page 1 (Reuters) - Tokyo, August 23 - Ms Akiko & nbsp; seio has been cautious about eating beef since the first BSE was discovered in Japan last September Today's fifth case raises doubts about the quality of pork and chicken "It's not just beef," she said "I'm starting to worry about all the food right now "Later on Tuesday, Japan's Ministry of health and welfare admitted to discovering a fifth case of BSE The incident is another blow to consumer confidence following the food safety scandal People are getting used to it The outbreak of the disease has greatly reduced the appetite of Japanese for beef, reduced the income of food companies and restaurants, shaken people's confidence, and they began to doubt whether the government could protect the health of the people People on their way to work on Friday said they were shocked by the first case of mad cow disease since May - despite the media's low-key attitude to the problem One woman said, "I'm worried I just hope that the Ministry of agriculture and water will conduct a thorough investigation into this incident "The Ministry of agriculture and water has started to investigate the cause of infection of the six-year-old cow The cow comes from Isehara, southwest of Tokyo It is speculated that it was eaten contaminated meat and bone meal (MBM) to get mad cow disease The previous cases occurred in Chiba, Eastern Tokyo, qunma county and Hokkaido, the northernmost part of Japan It's no surprise that the Ministry of agriculture and forestry is investigating the feed supplier of the cow, whether it has eaten milk substitutes during its young and whether it has been fed meat and bone meal in adulthood In the first four cases, infected cows were weaned and fed milk substitutes produced by a company in qunma County, north of Tokyo Since October last year, all cattle slaughtered and used as meat have been screened in Japan Japan's Ministry of health and welfare said 95 of the 1 million cattle that have been tested so far had positive initial results Hiroko & nbsp; mizuhara, Secretary General of the Japan Consumer Federation, Japan's largest consumer organization, "although consumers have many doubts about eating beef, they are very clear that the beef sold in the market is from cattle with negative pre-mortem test results "For food companies that suffered a sharp fall in their share prices last September, Friday's share price was fairly stable McDonald's holdings (Japan), Japan's largest food chain, closed at 2800 yen, the same as the previous trading day "It's true that the black cloud of mad cow disease is still hanging over the catering industry," said shuiichi & nbsp; HIDA, the investment manager of Sanyou trust investment management company "The company operates a 66 billion yen trust investment "But consumers and the market are not surprised "Tired of the scandal, the fifth case of mad cow disease has little impact on Tokyo meat market, Japan's largest beef wholesale market In the face of the new blow, the price of high-end cattle is 1670 yen per kilogram, only 28 yen lower than Thursday Although the meat market is relatively calm, the fifth case of mad cow disease can't be worse for the disaster stricken Japanese meat industry A series of fake label scandals just happened have greatly shaken people's confidence in food safety standards Meat packaging company, one of Japan's three largest meat producers, has attracted a lot of abuse The company sold imported beef to the government as domestic beef in a government buyback plan aimed at helping the industry deal with mad cow disease Similarly, Cheyenne's fraud led to its bankruptcy earlier this year, while other similar scandals hit the credibility of the food industry one after another Earlier this year, a special investigation team accused the Japanese government of ignoring the warning given to it by the World Health Organization and the European Commission, otherwise the BSE crisis in Japan could have been avoided NAr