TOKYO (Reuters) – Japan’s Warabeya Nichiyo saw a loss of more than 4% on Monday after the food manufacturer disclosed two cases of cockroaches being found inside its rice sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store last week.
Warabeya Nichiyo said it had received two separate notices that plum-flavored rice balls made at a subsidiary’s factory and sold at a 7-Eleven convenience store in Saitama, north of Tokyo, contained the pest.
“We sincerely apologize for the great inconvenience and discomfort this has caused our customers,” the Tokyo-based company said in a statement on Friday.
Its stock closed down 4.4% after losing as much as 8.6% at one point. The benchmark Nikkei 225 closed slightly higher on the day.
Warabeya Nichiyo said it recalled nearly 2,000 rice balls made at the same factory and sold at 373 7-Eleven stores on Thursday and Friday.
She added that the factory’s production lines were closed and disinfected.
Shares of 7-Eleven owner Seven & i Holdings finished nearly flat.
(Reporting by Satoshi Sugiyama; Editing by Chang-ran Kim and Christopher Cushing)
