OSAKA -- Yamazaki Baking Co. has retrieved more than 4,100 curry-flavored buns it recalled after convenience stores in Osaka and Hyogo prefectures reported that some of the products appeared to contain mold, officials of the company's factory in Osaka said Saturday.

Yamazaki, Japan's largest bread maker, has taken back 4,169 of about 22,000 buns since Thursday with sell-by dates of Thursday to Saturday, the officials said. All the buns were produced at Yamazaki's Osaka No. 1 factory in Suita, Osaka Prefecture.

Suita public health authorities began investigating the case Saturday, including questioning factory officials.

The officials said production of the buns at the facility has been suspended and they are trying to find out the cause of the mold. One possibility is that the baking time may have been insufficient.

The recall was prompted by complaints from two convenience stores, in Kadoma, Osaka Prefecture, and Takarazuka, Hyogo Prefecture, on Thursday that curry buns containing cheese and potato appeared to be moldy.

A check following the recall revealed that 11 of the buns with a Saturday sell-by date were moldy, the factory said.

The factory said it has received an additional 17 complaints regarding the product and two people have claimed they suffered abdominal pains. They were treated at a hospital but did not require hospitalization.

"We are aware that public opinion tends to be against the food industry in the wake of the food poisoning involving Snow Brand (Milk Products Co.)," an official of the Yamazaki factory said.

The official explained the company did not initially publicize the recall because there had been no direct complaints from consumers at the time.

The factory said it continued making the curry buns, extending the baking time, after deciding Thursday afternoon to recall the products.

But it stopped production Friday night after determining that continuing to sell the buns would only create anxiety among consumers.

The company also began recalling an additional 5,200 buns it shipped since Thursday afternoon, it said.

Yamazaki officials said the factory's products were distributed Osaka, Kyoto, Hyogo, Nara, Wakayama, Shiga and Tottori prefectures.

The curry buns are a new Yamazaki product, having gone on sale from July 1. They are baked in the factory at temperatures of 210-220 C for 17 minutes.

Snow keener on costs

OSAKA -- Snow Brand Milk Products Co., mired in Japan's worst food-poisoning scandal, emphasized its "low costs" in one of its brochures ostensibly at the expense of food safety, industry sources said Saturday.

The sources said Snow Brand's priority on cost-cutting was evident when Snow Brand President Tetsuro Ishikawa said at a news conference in the wake of the scandal that low-fat milk products, the target of massive recalls, "are not profitable."

In a 22-page brochure, for example, Snow Brand promises to "establish a low-cost operation system from the procurement of ingredients to distribution."

The brochure went on to describe the company's efforts to provide customers with products "at low cost" and "high service with low costs."

As for food safety, the brochure only briefly touched upon such concepts as "quality and trust," instead focusing on the need for the company to remain the industry leader via the production of efficient and high value-added products.

The food-poisoning outbreak, which started June 28, has so far sickened more than 14,000 people in 15 prefectures in western Japan.

Meanwhile, the Health and Welfare Ministry on Friday set up a 12-member team to carry out its own inspections of Snow Brand's 20 plants.

The inspections will begin early next week.

In addition, ministry officials also agreed to review an ordinance allowing manufacturers to recycle milk into other products under certain conditions.

Snow Brand was found to have been recycling milk that did not meet the conditions of the ordinance.

Ministry sources said the review may lead to a revision of the ordinance itself.

The ministry decided earlier in the day to revoke the Osaka plant's authorization as a Hazard Analysis Critical Control Point for processed milk and milk products effective the same day.

Investigative sources said Friday that Snow Brand recycled low-fat milk returned to its Osaka plant from June 23 to June 26, when production of tainted milk is thought to have peaked.