All Ajinomoto products to be withdrawn

All Ajinomoto products to be withdrawn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product has been withdrawn from the market and another 445 tons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)