Food product maker Hagoromo Foods Corp. said Thursday that it sold a can of tuna that contained an insect believed to be a cockroach, which apparently got inside during the manufacturing process.
The can of Sea Chicken tuna was produced in December 2014 and sold at a supermarket in Yamanashi Prefecture. A customer told the supermarket this month that when the can was recently opened, something was inside and Hagoromo Foods confirmed it was a 15-millimeter-long insect.
Hagoromo Foods did not immediately publicize the incident because it thought there was no possibility that insects got mixed into other products, a company official said.
The Shizuoka-based company also did not recall products of the same sort because there were no reports of similar cases over the nearly two years since the product was made.
The can containing the insect had gone through sterilization procedures after it was sealed.