A Nagano Prefecture unit of Snow Brand Milk Products Co., mired in fresh revelations concerning the massive food poisoning that hit western Japan earlier this summer, may have hidden information about possible product contamination from health authorities, local government sources said Thursday.
Officials of the prefecture's section on food and environment started questioning people at the Chino plant of Yatsugatake Snow Brand Milk Products on the matter, the sources said.
On Wednesday, the Chino plant started recalling some 125,000 packages of milk products manufactured from powdered skim milk shipped from Snow Brand's Taiki plant in Hokkaido, following the announcement earlier in the day that high concentrations of enterotoxin A -- a toxin produced by staphylococcus aureus bacteria -- had been identified in samples of powdered milk produced there in April.
According to Nagano Prefecture, about 400 bags of powered milk produced on April 1 at the Taiki plant were delivered to the Chino plant on Aug. 12.