Four executives of Japanese food retailer Itochu Fresh are to resign on 21 November, taking responsibility for a labelling scandal.

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Itochu Fresh, a subsidiary of Itochu Corp, sold 113.8 tonnes of Taiwanese eel that was wrongly labelled as Japanese eel in order to get higher prices for the products.


The profit from the mislabelled eel, sold between September 2000 and January 2002, was ¥28m (US$226,000).


Itochu Fresh plans to close the Fukuoka office where the mislabelling took place and end its eel business in the Kyushu region, reported the Japanese News Digest.


The division manager of the Fukuoka office was dismissed and four of the company executives, including the president and the chairman, are to resign.

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