Snow Brand Milk Products Co. said Thursday it will consider closing its Osaka plant following the recent outbreak of food poisoning caused by milk products shipped from the plant.
Tetsuro Ishikawa, president of Snow Brand, also announced that he will resign in September to take responsibility for the mass poisoning, in which more than 11,000 people in western Japan have been sickened.
"It will be extremely difficult to keep up operations (at the Osaka plant), and we will consider various options, including closure," the firm said in a statement.