'Red yeast rice incident' induces crisis of confidence: expert

The death toll has risen to five over consuming supplements with red yeast rice, or beni-koji, produced by Japanese drugmaker Kobayashi Pharmaceutical, Japan's TV Asahi reported on Friday.

Atsushi Osanai, a professor of Waseda University, said in an interview with China Media Group that the matter induced a crisis of confidence.

"The Osaka plant involved in the case has halted its production. So it is difficult to investigate the relevant causal relationship. This is the current situation. But as a pharmaceutical company, such problems caused by the production of food and oral products surely underlie problems in its crisis management. Function-labeled foods do not require official approval and enterprises may label their products based on their reputation. Strict safety management by enterprises is the premise of this system. The problem this time actually hurts the people's trust in the whole system," he said.

"We must take measures to protect the health of as many people as possible. Problems know no borders. The company must see the impacts overseas aside from in Japan," said Osanai.

According to the Japanese Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, since the problem erupted on March 22, Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has received 12,000 inquiries from consumers and the number of patients suspected of being hospitalized due to the supplements has climbed to 93.

At present, the use of red yeast rice raw materials produced by Kobayashi Pharmaceutical has led to increased recalls of products by other companies.

On Thursday, several Japanese media reported that FamilyMart, a chain convenience store in Japan, said that its fried rice and another two food products used relevant materials, and announced a recall.

Also on Thursday, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries called on the food and logistics sectors to assist in the recall of the products.