Japanese police to investigate food poisoning case as attempted murder

TOKYO, Feb. 5 (Xinhua) -- Japanese police established a joint task force Tuesday to investigate a food poisoning case involving Chinese-made frozen dumplings as attempted murder.

The police of Chiba and Hyogo prefectures jointly made the announcement. They suspected someone deliberately put the pesticide substance called methamidophos into the dumpling products of the Chinese producer, the Tian Yang Food Plant in north China's Hebei Province.

A total of 10 people from the two prefectures have been confirmed by the Japanese government as falling ill after consuming the contaminated dumplings.

While suspicious clues such as the pesticide was in huge amount and there were small holes on some packages remain inexplainable, it's currently still unknown whether the food products were contaminated during the production and transportation process in China.

The Chinese producer said it never used methamidophos in its factory and the products were packed immediately after production and then transported directly to Japan.