Coca Cola apologises to China over excessive chlorine content

[Judi Lynn]

Source: Press Trust of India

Coca Cola apologises to China over excessive chlorine content
Press Trust of India | Updated: May 06, 2012 10:46 IST

Beijing: A Chinese unit of Coca Cola apologised for the way it dealt with a 'scandal' that arose after some of its drinks were alleged to be contaminated with chlorine. David G Brooks, president of the US beverage giant's China and South Korea branches said the company's apology was necessary because it had not responded quickly enough to the scandal and had issued inconsistent statements as the case developed.

In response to the accusations, the company temporarily halted production at its bottling plant in Shanxi province on April 28. Shortly before that, the provincial food-safety watchdog had conducted an inspection of that site and confirmed earlier media reports which alleged that drinks produced from February 4 to February 8 were made with water containing unusually large amounts of chlorine. Of the 120,000 boxes of drinks, 76,391 were distributed in Shanxi.

"This is not the best moment for Coca Cola in its 126 years' history, but the incident in Shanxi is an isolated case," Brooks said, adding that it will not affect Coca Cola's reputation and business in China, Mr Brooks said.



Read more: http://www.ndtv.com/article/world/coca-cola-apologises-to-china-over-excessive-chlorine-content-206857

[tawadi]

1. Guess the Chinese expect an apology after contamination

Not exactly a two-way street there.

[CreekDog]

4. Chinese people probably don't support contamination of themselves nor anyone else in general

the idea that Chinese as a people want to contaminate us is unfair stereotyping.

[saras]

2. No numbers? No news. Just a PR battle.

How much chlorine is normal?
How much did they put in?
How fast does it dissipate when you open the can?
Does the excess react with anything else in the can before you open it?
If so, what? What are the resultant chemicals? At what concentrations?
What effects do they have? At what concentrations?

Can you taste it? Smell it?
Does it have health effects?
Does it have other effects?

Wouldn't it be something to have functional news organizations?

[Gidney N Cloyd]

3. Did we ever get an apology for the contaminated pet food a few years ago?

[tawadi]

5. That is what I was wondering

Exactly.

[provis99]

6. It's China; the CEOs probably got executed.

they did in the baby formula melamine scandal.

[Javaman]

7. Excessive.

So they still use chlorine, then?

I have two books warming my shelf at the moment on the history and practices of coke cola. I think they just moved to the top of my list.

[NickB79]

8. Most municipal water sources in the US use chlorine

I'd imagine it's the same in a developed country like China.

If they're manufacturing Coke out of a municipal water supply, it should have some chlorine in it.

[mwooldri]

9. Stands to reason that Coke would be made using muni water...

Coke had a little issue with its Dasani water brand when it was discovered that it is nothing more than London tap water, filtered. Killed its market.

Plus AFAIK pretty much every soft drink soda dispenser (Coke, Pepsi, whatever) that you see in restaurants use tap water since the product is sold in concentrate form.