MUI inspects Ajinomoto plant

MUI inspects Ajinomoto plant

SURABAYA (JP): A delegation from the Indonesian Ulemas Council
(MUI) visited on Thursday the Ajinomoto factory in Mojokerto,
East Java, to inspect the company's taste enhancers production
process.

"We are here to check on the production process of the
monosodium glutamate (MSG) and whether the company has met with
its commitments," MUI secretary general Din Syamsuddin said
during the visit.

PT Ajinomoto has asked to be granted a halal label in a
meeting with MUI board on Jan. 30 following a major controversy
over in which it was forced to withdraw its taste enhancer
product.

MUI last year found that the company had used pork in its MSG
making process.

The MUI entourage visiting the factory included chairman Umar
Shihab and MUI executives Ma'aruf Amin, Amidhan and director of
MUI's research laboratory Aisyah Girindra.

The group met with Ajinomoto's Manager of Production Control
and Purchasing Unit Djati Yuniarto and Ajinomoto's lawyer Amir
Syamsuddin.

The company's management revealed that a total of 10,000 tons
of taste enhancer which used a bactosoytone medium -- which
contains pig enzymes as its catalyst -- were recalled from the
market between September to December.

Ajinomoto said it has since switched to mameno enzymes --
extracted from soybeans -- instead of the pork-based bactosoytone
enzyme in producing MSG.

The company's factory in Mojokerto, however, was still not
fully operational but all of its 1,500 workers still reported to
work as usual.

The use of pork enzymes in the production of Ajinomoto's MSG
product caused a public furor last month in the country, which is
80 percent Muslim.

Muslims are forbidden under Islamic law to consume pork or
pork by-products.

Ajinomoto's management on Thursday "guaranteed that all of its
pork-tainted products will be recalled from the market and will
not be distributed in Indonesia."(edt/nur)