SAPPORO -- Hokkaido Prefectural Police have decided to launch an investigation into the discovery of toxin that can cause food poisoning in powdered skim milk produced at a Snow Brand Milk Products Co. factory in southern Hokkaido, police sources said Saturday.
Hokkaido police suspect conditions at the plant, in the town of Taiki, violated the Food Sanitation Law and the company committed professional negligence resulting in injury, the sources said.
In the investigation, Hokkaido police will cooperate with Osaka Prefectural Police, who have already conducted an investigation into a mass outbreak of food poisoning caused by products manufactured at the firm's Osaka plant, the sources said.