OSAKA -- Snow Brand Milk Products Co., whose products have caused an outbreak of food poisoning since late June, replaced a dirty machinery part near a contaminated valve at its Osaka plant before a police inspection last Sunday, police sources said Saturday.
Police have learned that workers at the factory, in Osaka's Miyakojima Ward, replaced a part connecting a pipe with the contaminated valve immediately before the inspection, the sources said.
The valve was contaminated with at least two types of toxin-producing bacteria, identified as staphylococcus aureus and cereus, and has been pinpointed as the cause of the food poisoning, which had made more than 13,000 consumers of Snow Brand products ill as of Saturday morning.