All Ajinomoto products to be withdrawn
JAKARTA (JP): Seasoning producer PT Ajinomoto Indonesia announced on Tuesday they are also withdrawing their other two taste enhancer brands, namely Masako and Sajiku, for "security reasons".
"After a discussion with the authorities and based on their suggestions we decided to also pull out Masako and Sajiku from the market," Susetyanto of General Affairs Unit of the Ajinomoto Indonesia told a media briefing.
He said that along with the tainted Ajinomoto product, both Masako and Sajiku products would be stored in the company warehouse in Mojokerto, East Java.
"We're still counting the total products of both Masako and Sajiku. As for Ajinomoto, as of Jan. 5 a total of 106 tons of product has been withdrawn from the market and another 445 tons have been placed in Mojokerto," Susetyanto said.
The company has reportedly produced 10,000 tons of the Monosodium Glutamate (MSG)-based seasoning which used the pig enzyme. As many as 3,000 tons were distributed domestically, while the remaining 7,000 tons were exported.
The company will only resume distribution of Ajinomoto, Masako and Sajiku after the matter is legally resolved and after the Food And Drug Control Research Unit at the Indonesian Ulemas Council (MUI) certifies them Halal, eligible for consumption according to Islam, Susetyanto added.
Police have arrested at least eight top executives of Ajinomoto, including three Japanese, following the discovery that a pork product was used in the manufacture of Ajinomoto's MSG.
Muslims, which account for over 80 percent of Indonesia's population of some 203 million, are prohibited from eating pork.
Police have also sealed the company's plant in Mojokerto, East Java, and two of its warehouses in Jakarta and Surabaya, the capital of East Java.
The company's lawyer, Amir Syamsuddin, said his client planned to meet with National Police chief in the next few days to discuss the fate of the company's plant in Mojokerto and other areas, citing concerns for the welfare of thousands of workers.
The company has some 3,400 employees nationwide.
"We also want to coordinate the withdrawal of the products from the market with the police since we have to meet the three- week deadline," Amir added.
Last week the health ministry gave the company three weeks to remove the products from market.
Ajinomoto Indonesia, which has already made a public apology for the incident, has said it will try to pull out all its tainted products well before the deadline and export them to non- Muslim countries such as Taiwan, Cambodia, the Philippines and Vietnam.
Company executives earlier admitted that for "economic reasons" they had used a pork-derived extract, in place of a beef extract, to develop an enzyme needed in the manufacture of MSG.
"Actually bactoysoytone enzyme costs a lot and we used it for practical reasons, which is to boost productivity," Susetyanto said.
But they said the enzyme was only a catalyst and was not present in the end product.
Amir Syamsuddin reiterated that PT Ajinomoto obtained the bactoysoytone enzymes from a biological engineering firm, Difco Inc., based in the United States.
"We expressed our deepest regret and are awaiting the legal process. President director of PT Ajinomoto Indonesia, Mitsuo Oda Arakawa, is in good health and he seems capable of coping with the matter," Amir said.
Meanwhile, Nadhatul Ulama Chief Solahudin Wahid said that there is no need to close down the factory of the taste enhancer but underlined that proper measures should be taken regarding the matter.
"I do not know whether this is a mistake or negligence. If it is a mistake there should be a sanction but if it is negligence they should restore it," Solahudin said on Tuesday.
"I don't know. If they continue production they can maintain their consumers, and they could export the non-halal products to other non-Muslim countries. That would be no problem at all," he added. (edt/dja)