Tainted rice

A rice distributor in Japan obtained government surplus of tainted rice from Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) and sold it to food companies as edible rice. The tainted rice (jiko-mai) contains poisonous fungi or pesticide residue and is not allowed in food products. Many food companies bought it from the distributor without knowing and had to recall their products.
Thus the tainted rice scandal has developed into a huge social problem. Ota, the minister of MAFF, explained that the tainted rice has no influence on human health. He also insisted that the ministry has no responsibility for the issue, but finally he was forced to resign to take the responsibility.

The poisonous fungi produce highly toxic mycotoxins. In Japan, the mycotoxin research has a history of over 100 years.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16025655
In 1891, Dr. Sakaki demonstrated that an ethanol extract from moldy yellow rice was fatal to experimental animals as a probable cause of acute cardiac beriberi. This led to a ban on the sale of yellow rice in Japan. Later studies demonstrated that the acute cardiac beriberi was due to the growth in rice of Penicillium citreoviride, which produced a highly toxic mycotoxin, citreoviridin.

In 1951, "yellow rice problem" occurred in Japan. The rice stocks imported from Thailand and Burma (Myanmar) contained yellow rice.
Dr. Tsunoda and his coworkers isolated two species of Penicillium associated with high toxicity, namely P. islandicum and P. citrinum, from the yellow rice grains. Dr. Uraguchi and other scientists revealed properties of the mycotoxins in detail including the induction of cancers.
Nevertheless, Japan Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry (the predecessor of MAFF) intended to mix the yellow rice into edible rice to reduce the stocks. The ministry explained that the yellow rice has no influence on human health. However it caused a national public backlash and consequently the government gave up the plan.

In the early 1960s, aflatoxins, the most carcinogenic mycotoxins, were discovered in England after an outbreak of "turkey X disease". The toxin-producing fungus, Aspergillus flavus, was identified from moldy peanuts in the meal. Aflatoxins are also detectable in the yellow rice.

The MAFF repeated similar mistakes and made a serious problem for moldy rice again. Does the Ministry consist of turkeys? If so, why are they not afraid of aflatoxins?