Nongfu throws cold water at story
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Nongfu Spring, the country's leading manufacturer of bottled water and beverages, refuted a claim by a government bureau Thursday that faulty testing equipment and improper procedures erroneously showed its products were contaminated with a harmful substance.
Nongfu accused the testing agency of trying to harm the company.
"Nongfu Spring suspects that the tests were manipulated to intentionally produce bad results, " its statement said.
The industry and commerce bureau of Hainan Province issued a public apology Wednesday in which it said the errors happened because of old equipment and because workers did not follow proper procedures.
Nongfu believes, however, that some workers intentionally manipulated test results with bad intentions.
The controversy began when the Haikou bureau of industry and commerce issued a warning on November 24, warning that Nongfu Spring's 30 percent mixed vegetable and fruit juice and its C-100 grapefruit juice, as well as beverages of the Uni-President Company, contained arsenic, which is a notoriously poisonous metalloid. The bureau later withdrew the test results.
The apology explained that the Haikou bureau had not fully followed the procedures.
It said the workers failed to ask the test center to inform the manufacturers of the test results before releasing the information to the media. They added that no workers were found to have received bribes or did something illegal.
An earlier report in the China Youth Daily said that the testing equipment had just passed the annual inspection and were in good condition.
The report also said that workers who did the tests were all senior engineers with at least 10 years experience.
"We accepted the apology from the industry and commerce bureau, but we haven't received any explanation from the test center until now," Xiao Jie, a spokesperson at Nongfu, told the Global Times Thursday.
The company's statement called for a judicial investigation into the incident.
Calls to the Hainan quarantine center went unanswered Thursday.
The statement also said Nongfu Spring reported the case to Hainan Public Security Department, but no investigation has been launched.
The company did not say whether it would take legal action to claim compensation.
Yang Shouzheng, a spokesman at Uni-President, told the Beijing Times Thursday that the company has received the statement from the industry and commerce bureau of Hainan Province.
"We accept the apology," Yang said. "I'm happy that the public can see the truth finally."
Uni-President has no intention to file for compensation from the government, according to Yang.
Shen Kui, an administrative law professor at Tsinghua University, told the Global Times that the episode raises questions about the transparency of the Hainan industry and commerce bureau.
"The industry and commerce bureau of Hainan Province is authorized to publish the information, but the problem is that it didn't recheck the results before that," Shen said.
Shen Ying, a Beijing resident, said she previously refused to use beverages and bottled water made by Nongfu Spring. "This accident attacked consumers' weak confidence, and also China's image in the world. The higher authorities should take action to fix the aging equipment," she said.
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