is a Japanese food company. It was renamed into the , on March 31, 2011. 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 Milk is a white liquid food produced by the mammary glands of mammals. It is the primary source of nutrition for young mammals (including breastfed human infants) before they are able to digestion, digest solid food. Immune factors and immune ...

ice cream Ice cream is a sweetened frozen food typically eaten as a snack or dessert. It may be made from milk or cream and is flavoured with a sweetener, either sugar or an alternative, and a spice, such as cocoa or vanilla, or with fruit such as str ...

, 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 drink Sports drinks, also known as electrolyte drinks, are functional beverages whose stated purpose is to help Sportsperson, athletes replace water, electrolytes, and energy before, during and especially after training or competition. There are many ...

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 supplement A dietary supplement is a manufactured product intended to supplement one's diet by taking a pill, capsule, tablet, powder, or liquid. A supplement can provide nutrients either extracted from food sources or that are synthetic in order ...

s like "Toromeiku", described as a "food viscosity preparation". It has a joint venture in Thailand with

Charoen Pokphand The Charoen Pokphand Group Company, Ltd. (CP) (; ) is a Thai conglomerate based in Bangkok. It is Thailand's largest private company and the largest privately held Royal Warrant holder of the Thai Royal Family. The company describes itself as havi ...

to market dairy products. On April 1, 2009,

Meiji Seika is a Japanese snack food company. It is the trade name of a pharmaceutical company in Japan. It was renamed into the on March 31, 2011. It is currently a subsidiary of Meiji Holdings and a Japanese leader in the area of infectious disease with ...

and Meiji Dairies established a holding company, Meiji Holdings, 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 Radioactive contamination, also called radiological pollution, is the deposition of, or presence of radioactive substances on surfaces or within solids, liquids, or gases (including the human body), where their presence is unintended or undesirab ...

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 York ( Pennsylvania Dutch: ''Yarrick''), known as the White Rose City (after the symbol of the House of York), is the county seat of York County, Pennsylvania, United States. It is located in the south-central region of the state. The populati ...

Notes

External links

Meiji Co., Ltd. website in English
Food and drink companies of Japan Drink companies of Japan Dairy products companies of Japan {{food-company-stub

See also

Notes

External links