[Aroid-l] Food maker halts jelly production (bad news for konnyaku)

From: Peter Matthews <pjm at gol.com> on 2008.10.14 at 04:33:46(18634) Japan Times (9th October 2008, front page, a national English-language daily): Food maker halts jelly production 17 children, seniors choked to death on 'konnyaku' since '95. MannanLife Co., Japan's largest maker of "konnyaku" (devil's tongue) jelly, said it halted production and shipment of all products Wednesday.... Article by M. Matsutani and A. Martin +++++++++++ My thoughts: those jellies were badly-designed, over-packaged, over-processed mouth-sized, throat-blocking products. Konnyaku (Amorphophallus paeoniifolius) itself is a great plant, and the traditional jelly product comes in safe large blocks or as noodles that can be used in dozens of ways in ordinary Japanese cooking. We can find it in every supermarket, and although the mannan has no direct nutritional role (it is indigestible), the jelly (more like soft rubber) does fill the belly and helps digestion generally. It is probably the original slimming product. Peter +More -- Peter Matthews (Dr) Field Sciences Laboratory Department of Social Research National Museum of Ethnology Senri Expo Park, Suita City, Osaka 565-8511, Japan Tel. +81 6 6876-2151 (exchange) Tel. +81 6 6878-8344 (my office, direct) Fax +81 6 6878-7503 Sites The Research Cooperative http://www.cooperative.ning.com National Museum of Ethnology http://www.minpaku.ac.jp Staff page http://www.minpaku.ac.jp/english/staff/matthews/ _______________________________________________ Aroid-L mailing list Aroid-L@www.gizmoworks.com http://www.gizmoworks.com/mailman/listinfo/aroid-l

Note: this is a very old post, so no reply function is available.