Six detained in chemical wine scandal in China
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In a latest food safety scandal, six people were detained, accounts of over a dozen firms were frozen and bottles pulled from the stores in China after authorities found wine containing several chemical additives and falsely using famous brand names.
"The Jiahua, Yeli and Genghao wineries have been accused of forgery and of adulterating their wine, during investigations by the local government," the Xinhua News agency reported on Monday, adding that sixteen corporate accounts involving 2.83 million yuan ($427,000) were frozen.
Five wineries in Changli were also suspected of making adulterated wines and labelling their products as famous brands, state-run CCTV reported.
The incident in Changli county, an area dubbed "China's Bordeaux", is the latest food safety scare to rattle consumer confidence after the 2008 tainted milk scandal.
Jiahua, one of the three wineries shut down, was also found to use nothing but water and chemicals to make its wine, with the cheapest bottle selling for less than 10 yuan ($1.50) on the market.
A total of 5,114 boxes of wine, thought to have been falsely labelled, and 19 templates for forging brand labels, as well as 280 unlabeled bottles were seized, Global Times said in its report.
Huang Weidong, a leading expert on the wine industry from the China alcoholic drinks industry association, said that the additives could cause headaches and irregularities in the rhythm of the heart, as well as cancer.
As result of the scandal supermarkets in Beijing pulled the wine products off their shelves.
"We are highly concerned about this behaviour. To ensure safety measures, we have already started to remove the suspected wines from the shelves," Zhang Tao, spokesman for Walmart supermarkets in Beijing, Tianjin and Hebei said.
Fu Yun, who is in charge of liquor in wu mart in Beijing told the media that they have already stopped selling the products and have asked manufacturers to provide test reports and new licenses.
Hefei, the provincial capital of Anhui province reportedly discovered hundreds of adulterated wine bottles from Changli county.
A 26-year-old local surnamed Zhang in Changli said the villagers are terrified that their income will plummet after this exposure.
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