OSAKA -- Education boards in Osaka, Nara and Shimane prefectures as well as 10 cities across Japan have decided to remove Snow Brand group products from school meals in the wake of the beef labeling scandal at Snow Brand Food Co., according to a Kyodo News survey.
School authorities in Akita, Fukushima and Nagasaki prefectures as well as six other cities say they may follow suit.
The school authorities decided to ban the group's products after Snow Brand Food admitted falsifying data on 14 tons of imported beef in order to claim government subsidies under a beef buyback program introduced last year to support the domestic beef industry after it was hit by mad cow disease.