廃棄食品問題 問われる日本の「食」

--The Asahi Shimbun, Jan. 24
EDITORIAL: Waste resale scandal puts safety of Japan’s food industry into question
（社説）廃棄食品問題　問われる日本の「食」

Industrial food waste, which should have been properly disposed of, has been found to be circulating in the market disguised as food products.
　本来は処分されなければならない産業廃棄物が「食品」に化け、市場に出回っていた。

The illegal sale of waste food items by an industrial waste disposal company in Aichi Prefecture surfaced after frozen beef cutlets discarded from Ichibanya Co., operator of a national chain of curry houses, were found on sale. There are indications that some of the cutlets had thawed before they appeared on the market, which could have harmed consumers' health.
　カレーチェーンを全国展開する壱番屋の冷凍カツで発覚した、愛知県の産廃業者による廃棄食品の横流し。市場に出回るまでに冷凍が解けた形跡があり、消費者に健康被害をもたらす可能性もあった。

The company’s chairman has admitted to his lawyer that he committed the irregularity for the sake of sales. We are only left to stare dumbfounded at the way rules were ignored.
業者は弁護士に「売るためにやった」と認めている。ルールを無視した行為に驚くばかりだ。

One hundred and eight other items were found at facilities of a company in Gifu Prefecture, which bought the cutlets from the industrial waste disposal company and resold them. To current knowledge, those products come from manufacturers and distributors based in 25 areas ranging from Hokkaido to Miyazaki Prefecture.
　産廃業者からカツを買って転売した岐阜県の業者の施設からはほかにも１０８品目が見つかった。現時点で、製造・販売元は北海道から宮崎県まで２５自治体に及ぶ。

The food items, likely diverted off legal sales channels, include products from such major firms as Aeon Co. and Marukome Co.
横流しされたとみられる食品にはイオンやマルコメなどの商品も含まれる。

We are only left to watch the extent of the scandal’s reach. We hope the police will investigate the case through and through. The government should also conduct a nationwide survey.
問題はどこまで広がるのか。警察の徹底的な捜査を期待したい。国も全国的な調査をすべきだ。

The frozen beef cutlets in question, which had been discarded due to the suspected mixing in of foreign substances, returned to the channels of budget markets and were passed on among more than one tier of brokers after they were sold by the company in Gifu Prefecture.
　問題の冷凍カツは異物混入の恐れがあり、破棄されたものだが、岐阜県の業者の手を離れたあとは「格安市場」のルートに乗り、複数の仲買業者の間で転売された。

“We never suspected the products were waste items, because we know stock items are sometimes distributed at low prices,” one of the brokers said.
「在庫が安く出回ることはある。廃棄物とは思わなかった」と語る業者もいた。

But how could one assess the safety of food products without identifying their origins?
　だが素性の確認なしに、食品の安全性は判断できまい。

Irresponsible transactions could pour cold water on serious efforts at offering budget prices to meet consumer demand and on the activity of food banks and other entities that are providing surplus food items, which have no quality issues, to impoverished people and others.
　無責任な取引は、消費者ニーズに応えようと真面目に格安販売に取り組む人や、品質に問題のない余剰食品を生活困窮者らに提供するフードバンクなどの活動にも水を差しかねない。

Ichibanya, which saw its products mishandled, had left the cutlets intact when it commissioned the industrial waste disposal company to dispose of them. They ended up being sold illegally, partly because they retained the appearance of food products.
　製品を悪用された壱番屋は、産廃業者に処理を委託する際、カツに手を加えていなかった。食品の形をとどめていたことが横流しを招く一因となった。

Ichibanya made the right move by promptly formulating improvement measures after the scandal came to light. The company has said it will henceforth ensure its waste food products are destroyed so they can no longer be reused, or alternatively, if that is not possible, make sure its employees attend the disposal process, down to the final stages, for visual confirmation.
　問題発覚を受け、壱番屋がいち早く改善策を打ち出したことは当然だ。今後は再利用できない形で廃棄し、それができない場合は最終処理まで社員が立ち会い、目視で確認するという。

We hope those measures will help prevent a recurrence of improprieties.
再発防止に役立ててほしい。

Other food manufacturers should also intensify their monitoring to ensure their waste items are being properly processed.
　食品製造に関わるほかの事業者も、適正な処理がなされているか監視を強める必要がある。

The waste management and public cleansing law stipulates that dischargers of business-related wastes should be responsible for their disposal.
　廃棄物処理法が定めるように、事業活動にともなう廃棄物は、排出者自らが処理に責任を持たなければならない。

Two and a half million tons of food items are discarded annually in Japan as industrial waste. That immensity is partially attributed to the so-called “one-third rule” of the food industry, a business practice whereby products are not allowed to be delivered to retailers when one-third of the period from the manufacture date through the best-before date has passed, and whereby retailers take them off the shelves when two-thirds of that period have elapsed.
　国内で出る食品の産廃は年間２５０万トンにも及ぶ。その一因とされるのが食品業界の「３分の１ルール」だ。製造から賞味期限までの３分の１を過ぎた商品は小売店へ納品できず、小売店は３分の２を経過した時点で店頭から下げる商習慣だ。

Mass disposal of food products that remain edible is a built-in feature of Japan’s food industry. One could say the latest scandal thrust that reality back into the spotlight.
　まだ食べられる食品が、大量に破棄されることが織り込まれている日本の「食」――。今回の問題は、その現実を改めて白日の下にさらしたとも言える。