Coca-Cola's flavoured milk deliberately poisoned: China
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China on Tuesday said that the Coca-Cola brand milk drinks, which resulted in the death of one person and hospitalisation of three others were deliberately poisoned.
The flavoured milk was deliberately poisoned, state-run Xinhua news agency quoted Chinese police saying but there was no explanation yet how the toxic chemicals were mixed in the drink.
A boy died and his mother was poisoned on November 28 in Changchun city of northeastern Jilin province, after drinking the flavoured milk made by the Coca-Cola subsidiary Minute Maid in Jilin.
The mother is now stable but remains hospitalised, but she is in stable condition. In a separate incident, two other Changchun residents were hospitalised after drinking the same product. They have been treated and discharged from hospital. The two incidents have prompted the province to pull all of the Minute Maid products from the market.
Police said samples taken from the drinks contained Methomyl and Thiodicarb, substances used in pesticides. Coca-Cola has entrusted the China National Centre for Food Quality Supervision and Testing to test samples from the same batch of the strawberry-flavored milk drinks.
According to a report released by the Centre on Monday, no toxic substances have been found in these products. A special work group, including seven experts from the Ministry of Public Security, are continuing the investigation.
However no information has been released explaining how the toxic chemicals were mixed into the drinks. Coca-Cola said in a press release on Tuesday that the company has ‘100-per cent confidence’ that its products are absolutely safe and reliable.
However, this is not the first time that the US beverage giant has been involved in scandals involving Contaminated or poisonous products in China. Two cases were reported in Beijing in 2009 and 2010 in which a man and a teenager respectively were thought to be poisoned by mercury-tainted Sprite drinks. Investigations later revealed the two cases were the result of intentional poisoning, and therefore, were not a quality issue for Coca-Cola, state run Xinhua news agency reported.
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