Milk produced by Morinaga Milk Industry Co. that made junior high school students in western Japan sick on Wednesday probably contained disinfectant used for cleaning milk bottles, company officials said early Thursday.
"Considering that they were complaining of a foul smell, there is a possibility that liquid sodium hypochlorite, used to disinfect the bottles, may have remained in the bottles," said Juichi Ihara, manager of Morinaga's Kinki factory in Nishinomiya, Hyogo Prefecture.
This theory was supported by health officials in the city of Nishinomiya, who told a separate news conference that the substance that caused the illness was probably sodium hypochlorite.
According to the officials, it was likely that some of the solution used to disinfect the cases holding the milk bottles was not completely removed and dripped onto an area near the bottle tops.