英字新聞

The Yomiuri Shimbun
Reselling of disposed food shows safety wasn’t given top priority
廃棄食品横流し　安全優先の意識が欠けている

Food that should have been thrown away has been distributed and ended up on many dining tables. This must be prevented from happening again.
　廃棄されるべき食品が流通し、食卓に上っていた。再発を防がなければならない。

Ichibanya Co., operator of the CoCo Ichibanya curry restaurant chain, had entrusted Daiko, an industrial waste disposal company in Aichi Prefecture, to discard frozen beef cutlets. However, Daiko illegally resold the cutlets, which ended up being sold at supermarkets and retailers.
　カレーチェーン「ＣｏＣｏ壱番屋」を展開する壱番屋が廃棄を委託した冷凍ビーフカツが、愛知県の産業廃棄物処理会社「ダイコー」によって横流しされ、スーパーや小売店で売られていた。

There were suspicions some of the cutlets had been contaminated by a foreign substance. Daiko’s president reportedly tried to explain his actions by saying, “I succumbed to the temptation of being able to make a profit without spending money to dispose of the food.”
　冷凍カツには、異物混入の疑いがあった。ダイコーの会長は「処理費用をかけずに、利益を得られるので、魔が差した」と釈明しているという。

We are extremely concerned by Daiko’s attitude of giving precedence to making a profit by distributing the frozen cutlets, despite fears they could harm the health of consumers.
　健康被害の恐れがありながら、冷凍カツを流通させた利益優先の姿勢は、極めて問題である。

Daiko sold the cutlets to a noodle maker. At its facilities, the noodle maker was found to be storing 108 kinds of food, including miso and deli items sold at major convenience stores and by food makers. All these items appear to have been bought from Daiko − and were supposed to have been discarded.
　横流しを受けた製麺業者の施設からは、大手コンビニエンスストアや食品メーカーの総菜やみそなど、１０８品目もの製品が見つかっている。全てダイコーから入手した廃棄食品とみられる。

Reselling such items had seemingly become a common practice. Police have launched an investigation into what is suspected to be a violation of the Waste Management and Public Cleansing Law. We hope the police will quickly trace the distribution channels.
　横流しが常態化していたのだろう。警察は廃棄物処理法違反の疑いで捜査に乗り出した。流通経路の特定を急いでもらいたい。

The waste management law obliges operators of waste disposal businesses to submit a report, called a manifest, to companies that produce the waste. The kinds and volumes of waste to be handled, as well as the method of disposal, must be specified in the report. This is meant to give transparency to the flow of industrial waste.
　廃棄物処理法は、処理業者に対し、扱った産業廃棄物の種類や量、処理方法をマニフェスト（管理票）に記載し、廃棄した事業者に報告するよう義務づけている。産廃の流れを透明化するためだ。

Reducing ‘food loss’

However, Daiko falsely reported to Ichibanya that all the cutlets “had been made into compost.” This shows there are limits to managing industrial waste through these reports.
　しかし、ダイコーは壱番屋に、「すべて堆肥化した」と虚偽の報告をしていた。マニフェストによる廃棄物管理には限界があることを示している。

The Environment Ministry should crack down on such deceitful operators by strengthening its guidance and screening of them, and by reviewing its inspection system of the manifest.
　悪質な業者を排除するため、環境省は、指導や検査を強化し、マニフェストのチェック体制も再検討すべきだ。

A response by operators who dispose of food will also be important to prevent further wrongdoing.
　不正防止には、食品を廃棄する事業者側の対応も重要である。

Since this scandal emerged, Ichibanya has decided it would no longer hand over food for disposal in its original state as a food product. Instead, items will be removed from the wrapping and mixed with other waste food sludge before being entrusted to an operator for disposal. In cases in which waste is discarded in the form of a food product, an Ichibanya employee will accompany the contractor to observe the disposal process until the final phase.
　事件を受けて、壱番屋は、製品をそのまま廃棄せず、包装を外して汚泥などに混ぜてから処理を委託することを決めた。製品の状態のまま委託する際には、最終処理まで社員を立ち会わせる。

We hope operators that handle food will thoroughly implement such steps.
　食品を扱う業者は、こうした取り組みを徹底してほしい。

It must not be forgotten that what is known as “food loss” was behind this incident. Even excluding cases like this one, in which a foreign substance was thought to have contaminated a food product, about 6.4 million tons of food are discarded each year in Japan for various reasons, including the approach of their best-before date.
　事件の背景に、「食品ロス」の問題があることも忘れてはならない。今回のような異物混入がなくても、賞味期限が迫ったという理由などで廃棄される食品は、国内で年６４０万トンにも上る。

It can be said that the illegal reselling of food has taken advantage of the habit of discarding food that can still be consumed. The industry must come up with shrewd ways to reduce “food loss.”
　横流しは、まだ食べられる食品を捨ててしまう慣習につけ込んでいるとも言える。業界には食品ロスを減らす工夫が求められる。

Many consumers tend to avoid food nearing its best-buy date, and instead opt for items produced more recently. They need to reconsider their perceptions in this respect.
　賞味期限が間もなく切れる食品を避け、製造から日が浅いものを選びがちな消費者の意識も、見直す必要があるだろう。

(From The Yomiuri Shimbun, Feb. 5, 2016)