Chinese supermarkets have pulled Japanese food products from their shelves after a high-profile television show falsely claimed that goods from one company being sold into the Chinese market were contaminated with radiation from the 2011 Fukushima disaster.
The claims were made last Wednesday on 315, an annual consumer rights programme produced by state broadcaster CCTV. The show alleged that Japanese retailer Muji had imported items, including those made by snackmaker Calbee, originating in areas from which China has banned food imports since the triple nuclear meltdown six years ago.
Muji’s parent company Ryohin Keikaku and Calbee lost more than $200m in market value the following day, despite a clarification from Muji the same day that the address printed on its food labels were for the company’s headquarters and did not indicate where the food items were produced.