The city of Osaka held its first task force meeting on the 3rd in response to the issue of people developing kidney disease after ingesting health foods containing ingredients from Kobayashi Pharmaceutical's red yeast rice, which is headquartered in Osaka. We have confirmed that a dedicated investigation team will investigate the cause of the incident.
The first task force meeting held at Osaka City Hall was attended by 11 people, including Mayor Yokoyama, city executives, and researchers from the Osaka Institute for Health and Safety Research.
At the beginning of the meeting, Mayor Yokoyama said, ``As the damage continues to increase, the stage has changed.We want to thoroughly share the situation and future challenges.After doing what the city needs to do, we will work with related organizations.'' We would like to work together to respond."
At the meeting, it was mentioned that the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the city had so far conducted an investigation by requesting Gifu Prefecture and Toyama City, where the factories that manufacture the three types of products are located, and that on the 30th of last month, the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and the city had confirmed that the factories that manufacture the red yeast rice raw material. It was reported that an on-site inspection was conducted at a factory in Osaka City.
As of the 1st of this month, approximately 860,000 products of the three types of products that the city ordered companies to recall based on the Food Sanitation Act last month had been sold at approximately 23,000 retail stores in 129 municipalities. He explained that the health centers of each local government are currently checking the whereabouts of the products.
Osaka City has set up a dedicated investigation team consisting of 13 people, including food sanitation inspectors, within this task force, and will work in collaboration with companies and the government to understand the recall situation, the spread of health damage, and investigate the cause. I am planning to work on such things.
Osaka City Mayor Yokoyama: “We want to step up our response.”
After the task force meeting, Mayor Yokoyama of Osaka City told reporters, ``At the task force meeting, we were able to confirm how Osaka City as a whole is going to tackle the issue.We are currently working on understanding damage information and identifying the causes. We need to work on elucidating the issue, including identifying the substance.We are at a stage where the situation is changing, and we want to step up our efforts to respond."