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)