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Shares in South Korean food maker Nong Shim fell on Tuesday after what a government regulator said appeared to be a rat's head (above) was found in a bag of its popular brand of shrimp cracker snacks. -- PHOTO: REUTERS
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SEOUL - SOUTH Korea's food protection agency said on Thursday it will send a fact-finding team to a Chinese factory that produced a popular snack food found to contain a suspected rat's head.
The Korea Food and Drug Administration will send investigators to the factory in Qingdao in eastern China, which performs initial production steps for shrimp crackers sold by South Korea's leading processed food company Nongshim, said Choi Jong Dong, a KFDA official.
An agency official has been negotiating with Chinese authorities to schedule the probe, Mr Choi said.
China's reputation as an exporter has taken a beating in the past year following recalls of products including the toothpaste, toys tainted with lead, and pet food fortified with the toxic chemical melamine.
Nongshim has apologised for the incident and this week began recalling the snack from shops across South Korea, said company spokesman Hyun Seok.
The snack - called 'Saewuggang' in Korean - is one of the most popular in South Korea since it first went on sale in 1971.
Nongshim said the snack's annual sales volume was 60 billion won (S$81.8 million) in recent years.
The scandal in South Korea flared this week when the KFDA announced a foreign substance believed to be a rat's head was found in the snack.
The food agency said it suspected the animal part was accidentally introduced in Nongshim's China factory.
Mr Choi said the KFDA investigation found the company's South Korean plant, where the manufacturing process is completed, is equipped with facilities to prevent the entrance of rodents and insects.
Mr Choi said KFDA has no knowledge of whether the Chinese plant has similar equipment.
Nongshim spokesman Hyun, however, said the Chinese factory had similar facilities as its South Korean plant.
The Chinese plant mixes the cracker dough with shrimp, which is then fried in the South Korean factory to make the finished snack, according to Nongshim.
Nongshim also has been under fire following revelations it continued to sell the snack even after it received a customer's complaint on Feb 18 about the animal part found in the snack. -- AP
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