AP reports that Japanese police yesterday arrested a factory worker at a Maruha Nichiro Holdings plant that churned out food laced with the pesticide, malathion, which led to massive poisoning and a recall of more than 6 million packages of frozen food. As many as 2,800 people across Japan may have been sickened by the tainted food, including pizzas, croquettes and pancakes manufactured at the plant north of Tokyo.
What appears to be an intentional act aside, Maruha Nichiro announced executive pay cuts and that the president of the company and the president of the subsidiary were resigning in March to take responsibility for the food poisoning. Now, that has never happened in the United States that I can recall – even when the executives were more culpable.