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TOKYO - A Japanese woman fell ill from eating instant noodles laced with insecticide, officials said Thursday, in the latest food safety scare to hit the country.
Nissin Food Products Co., the manufacturer of the globally popular fast food, did not immediately say how the noodles were tainted. A series of previous incidents involved food imported from China.
The woman, 67, vomited and felt numbness on her tongue after eating Nissin's Cup Noodle on Monday in the Tokyo suburb of Fujisawa, the city's health office said.
"The patient has recovered from the sickness," the office said in a statement.
Her husband, 75, also ate a small amount of the noodles but did not develop any symptoms, it said. The health office studied the product and detected paradichlorobenzene, the key chemical in bug repellent, but no puncture or other abnormality in the cup, the statement said.
Nissin created instant ramen noodles as Japan rebuilt from World War II, aiming at busy people on the go, in what has turned into a multibillion-dollar industry. The company said it would hold a news conference later in the day.
The case occurred amid fresh concerns over food safety in Japan after a restaurant chain served small amounts of the toxic chemical melamine in its pizza due to tainted powdered milk imported from China.
Japan has also been investigating a separate case in which frozen green beans imported from China were found to have thousands of times the permissible level of pesticides, sickening at least one woman this month.
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