TOKYO, Dec. 21 (UPI) -- A Japanese food company president will face criminal charges for selling tainted rice unfit for human consumption to other food makers, sources say.
Mikasa Foods President Mitsuo Fuyuki admitted in September to instructing his employees to perpetrate the reselling of rice tainted with pesticides in deals intended to make profits. Now police will file charges against Fuyuki, 73, and possibly others involved in the scandal, unnamed sources told the Kyodo news agency Sunday.
Charges against the Osaka food wholesaler will be pressed by a joint law enforcement team of investigators from the prefectural police headquarters from Osaka, Fukuoka and Kumamoto, the news service said.
Officials say the firm is suspected of selling 110 tons of the Chinese-produced rice tainted with the pesticide methamidophos last year to a rice wholesaler in Fukuoka Prefecture.
