The clams were labeled as coming from Kumamoto, but they were actually from China. The clams had disappeared from supermarkets for a while after the news report, but they were still sold under the label "from China.
I was not surprised, as there have always been cases of falsified products, but I felt cheated as I used to buy marine products from them.
When I shop at the supermarket, I always check where the fish was caught. This is because some foods taste different depending on where they were caught.
For example, there is a clear difference between firefly squid from Toyama and those from Hyogo.
The taste of clams from Kumamoto and Hokkaido were so different that I thought they were different types of shellfish.
The clams in question this time were small, but I could not distinguish them from the Kumamoto clams.
In the case of clams, even if the clams were first caught in China, they can be legally sold as Kumamoto-grown if they were raised for a certain period of time in a fishing ground in Kumamoto (this is called "raising for livestock").
Recently, however, it seems that clams that were never scattered in the fishing grounds of Kumamoto were being sold as Kumamoto clams.
I like clams steamed in sake, and I was not satisfied with the clams sold in the supermarket because they were too small.
I thought that people in the Kanto region only ate clams in miso soup because they only sold small clams, but it seems that this is not the case.
Since they are not grown in Japan, there is no way for them to become large clams, which means that only small clams are distributed.
I used to prefer to buy clams labeled "Kumamoto-grown" at the supermarket because I used to catch clams by tidepooling in the Ariake Sea and Amakusa Sea when I was in elementary school.
Whenever I bought clams from Kumamoto, memories of my childhood and the view of the sea came to my mind.
That's why I feel so betrayed by this disguised origin of clams.
I'll have to say goodbye to sake-steamed clams for the time being until the real Kumamoto clams hit the stores. It's a pity, though.
But is it okay to use Chinese products for everything?
