MEIJI announced on December 6, 2011 that Meiji STEP milk powder produced and sold by MEIJI has been proved with tests that each kilogram such milk powder includes 30.8 becquerel of radiate nuclide Cs +. This is the first batch of milk powder tested with Cs content exceeding the threshold level after the nuclear station accident in Japan. Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare has commenced on investigation in this incident.
The provisional ceiling level of Cs content in each kilogram milk powder issued by Japanese government is 200 becquerel. The said Meiji milk powder did not exceed such ceiling level, but public concerns still follow up, because infants are more tender than adults to be affected by the radiate substances. It is said that the price of Meiji stock on December 6 dove by 13.24% and decreased by 9.72% at the closing price.
MEIJI claimed that those tested milk power was produced in Meiji factory 270 kilometers away from Fukushima Prefecture and the original material was sourced from Hokkaido before the nuclear station accident in Fukushima Prefecture. According to the recent statistics, the Meiji milk power with radiate material reached 400,000 cans with expiration terms as of 3, 4, 5, 6, 21, 22, 23 or 24 of October, 2012. MEIJI will exchange such milk power for its consumers for free since its announcement of the incident.
According to the report of Kyodon News, a major Chinese news website in Japan, the legal entity of MEIJI in China claimed on December 6 that the Meiji milk powder sold in China market “is safe, because it was produced in Australia”.
