, formerly , is a Japanese food company. It was a major

dairy A dairy is a business enterprise established for the harvesting or processing (or both) of animal milk – mostly from cows or buffaloes, but also from goats, sheep, horses, or camels – for human consumption. A dairy is typically located on ...

industry company established in 1917. Apart from dairy products like milk, ice cream, and

cheese Cheese is a dairy product produced in wide ranges of flavors, textures, and forms by coagulation of the milk protein casein. It comprises proteins and fat from milk, usually the milk of cows, buffalo, goats, or sheep. During production, ...

, their lineup includes sports drinks,

pizza Pizza (, ) is a dish of Italian origin consisting of a usually round, flat base of leavened wheat-based dough topped with tomatoes, cheese, and often various other ingredients (such as various types of sausage, anchovies, mushrooms, onions ...

, chocolate bars and food supplements like "Toromeiku", described as a "food viscosity preparation". It has a joint venture in Thailand with Charoen Pokphand to market dairy products. On April 1, 2009, Meiji Seika and Meiji Dairies established a holding company,

Meiji Holdings is a Japanese holding company established on April 1, 2009, after the stock transfer from Meiji Seika and Meiji Dairies and is the fourth largest confectionery company in the world. Reorganization Meiji Holdings held a press conference on Septemb ...

, which is a constituent of the Nikkei 225 index. Two years later on the day, Meiji Dairies took over the food and healthcare business of Meiji Seika, and became a food company with legal name Meiji Co., Ltd. On December 6, 2011, radioactive

caesium Caesium (IUPAC spelling) (or cesium in American English) is a chemical element with the symbol Cs and atomic number 55. It is a soft, silvery-golden alkali metal with a melting point of , which makes it one of only five elemental metals that a ...

was found in the Meiji baby formula. The level of contamination was lower than the Japanese government's allowable limit of 200 becquerels per kilogram, which is 50 becquerels higher than the limit applied in the aftermath of the

Chernobyl disaster The Chernobyl disaster was a nuclear accident that occurred on 26 April 1986 at the No. 4 reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant, near the city of Pripyat in the north of the Ukrainian SSR in the Soviet Union. It is one of only two nuc ...

. The company made the controversial claim that the infant milk was "within safety limits" and that it "didn't pose a health risk", despite a potentially large number of infants suffering internal radiation through ingesting the contaminated milk who were presumably already exposed to the external radiation originally unleashed in the March disaster. Meiji Dairies voluntarily recalled 400,000 cans of formula. The radioactive contamination was originally discovered by a citizen's group in Nihonmatsu City, Fukushima Prefecture as far back as November but the company found itself unable to act immediately upon receiving the information. Meiji owns the United States cookie manufacturer D.F. Stauffer Biscuit Company based in York, Pennsylvania.

Notes

External links

Meiji Co., Ltd. website in English
Japanese companies established in 1917 Food and drink companies established in 1917 Food and drink companies of Japan Drink companies of Japan Dairy products companies of Japan Food and drink companies based in Tokyo Japanese brands {{food-company-stub

See also

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External links