Japan food scandal

Fried noodle fans in Japan were not amused when the "foreign objects" in their food turned out not to be specks of meat but bona fide cockroaches.

Maruka Foods confirmed it had suspended its entire production line and was recalling two types of instant fried noodles after a consumer said he had picked insect appendages out of his meal.

It was the second unsavory find in days. A cockroach had also been found in some pasta made by Japan's Nissin Frozen Foods, sparking another mass recall.

Japanese consumers are used to high food safety standards. Occasional scares that shake confidence in a brand can be very costly for manufacturers, who may find it takes years to earn their way back into shoppers' good graces.

AFP news agency reported the Maruka Foods recall affected some 46,000 packets of the popular Peyoung instant fried noodle brand, which was launched in the 1970s and has had a strong fan base ever since.

But now customers addicted to Maruka's products are worrying the recent incident may have a long-term effect.

The Wall Street Journal quotes Maruka as saying the pieces of cockroach might have gotten mixed in during the manufacturing process in line with the findings of both third-party and in-house inspections.

The brand of noodles affected had only been sold in Japan, the company assured the rest of the world.

hg/cjc (AFP, WSJ)