TOKYO - Rice contaminated with pesticides or mould may have been used in up to 8.6 million lunch meals served at schools and kindergartens in 40 prefectures, a Japanese newspaper reported yesterday.

Most of the food feared to have contained the contaminated rice came in the form of such products as omu rice - fried eggs or omelettes with rice - produced by Suguru Shokuhin, a processed food company based in Tokyo's Meguro ward, the Asahi Shimbun said.

Products by Suguru - which had a good reputation for producing quality processed egg products - were served in school lunches in 39 prefectures. The most affected prefecture was Aichi prefecture, with about 1.87 million servings of school lunches that may have contained tainted rice between 2003 and last year, Asahi said.

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