A bottle of sauce sold at a Tokyo supermarket has been found laced with herbicide in what police believe is a case of forcible obstruction of business.

At around 11:30 a.m. on June 28, a customer at the Ito-Yokado Supermarket's Minowa outlet in Arakawa-ku found a sticker bearing a handwritten message, "Danger! Poisoned" on a bottle of sauce for grilled chicken.

A Metropolitan Police Department (MPD) investigation revealed that the sauce had been contaminated with the herbicide glyphosate. While not deadly, glyphosate can cause nausea, headaches and diarrhea if ingested.

Officials at Ebara Foods Industry, Inc. which produced the sauce said the company has not received any threatening calls or letters.

Copyright 2005-2006 THE MAINICHI NEWSPAPERS. All rights reserved. Mainichi features the best news in Japan, current news in Japan, Japan news in English, Japan business news, Tokyo Japan news, and Japan entertainment news. Mainichi News is syndicated in accordance with editorial regulations: personal and noncommercial purposes.