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Beverage maker told to destroy expired materials
The authorities of Binh Duong Province Thursday asked the soft drink maker Tan Hiep Phat Company to destroy nearly 10 tons of materials past their expiry date that were found on its premises earlier this month.
The company was also found to have relabeled bottles containing 6,200 kilograms of guava juice with the new expiry date of June 16, 2009, covering old labels indicating the product expired last November and December.
But as those bottles had been categorized as expired goods for liquidation, the company would not be fined for this offence, the bureau said.
Police earlier this month found 26 tons of expired flavoring materials at the company’s warehouse in Ho Chi Minh City’s Binh Thanh District, and some 1,200 liters of the materials at its storage facility in Binh Duong Province.
The materials had been abandoned for a long time because they weren’t suitable for the market, general director Tran Qui Thanh told Thanh Nien last week.
Tan Hiep Phat’s soft drinks include familiar brands like the Number 1 energy drink, Tra Xanh Khong Do sweetened green tea, Barley tea and Dr. Thanh sweetened herbal tea. Regular consumers of these beverages were shocked and angered by the discovery.
Major supermarket chains in HCMC including Saigon Co.op, Big C and Maximart pulled the bottles from their shelves in the wake of the findings but recalled the drink several days later.
Hoang Tuan
thanhnien
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