Several established tea beverage manufacturers were yesterday singled out by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) over inadequate factory conditions, such as having an overabundance of spider webs.
The administration inspected the factories of 25 packaged beverage manufacturing companies earlier this month and tested 42 tea products.
“Of the group, 10 firms failed to meet the country’s Good Hygienic Practice [GHP] standards, including the factories of King Car Industrial Co and Young Energy Source Mineral Water in Yilan County, as well as the factories of Kuang Chuan Dairy Co, Hey-Song Co and Uni-President Enterprises Co in Taoyuan,” FDA Director-General Chiang Yu-mei (姜郁美) told a news conference in Taipei yesterday.
Chiang said the presence of spider webs, cockroaches or mice was detected in both King Car and Young Energy’s factories, while footprints were found on the packaging of powdered sugar at Kuang Chuan’s factory.
In addition, eight of Young Energy’s canned products did not have a bacteria testing report and have been banned from production pending submission of the required document.
Hey-Song’s factory failed the inspection because its sample tasting spoons were not properly cleaned and placed.
Uni-President’s Taoyuan factory was listed as unqualified because packages of its tea leaves were splashed with water, Chiang said.
The 10 companies have been ordered to make necessary improvements, Chiang said, adding that those that fail to comply could be subjected to a maximum fine of NT$200 million (US$6.5 million) in accordance with Article 44 of the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation (食品安全衛生管理法), or face shutdown.
Meanwhile, all 42 products tested were free of pesticide residue, Chiang added.
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