Coca Cola Vietnam Beverage Company Limited has been fined over 443 million VND for many violations and forced to recall a batch of Samurai strawberry-flavored energy drink.

This afternoon, July 28, Deputy Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Health Nguyen Van Nhien decided to administratively fine Coca Cola Vietnam Beverage Company Limited with the above fine.

Coca Cola Vietnam's violations include: producing food supplements at Coca Cola factories in Ho Chi Minh City, Hanoi and the company's branch in Da Nang without a certificate of food safety eligibility;

Manufacturing and selling a batch of Samurai energy drink with strawberry flavor, production date 5/24/2016, expiration date 5/24/2017, 240 ml glass bottle with quality not conforming to the announced standards for vitamin B9 content (folic acid), the amount of goods sold that could not be recovered was worth nearly 234 million VND.

Also according to this decision, the Ministry of Health inspector requested the company to recall the maximum batch of strawberry-flavored Samurai products mentioned above, and report the results to the Ministry of Health when the recall process is complete.

Previously, on June 20, the Ministry of Health inspectors began a comprehensive inspection at Coca Cola Vietnam. On June 23, the inspectors issued a document requesting Coca Cola Vietnam to stop circulating 13 micronutrient-fortified products, because the factories producing these 13 products did not have certificates of eligibility according to regulations.

On June 28 and July 1, the Food Safety Department granted licenses to produce food supplements to three factories and branches of the company.

However, according to Mr. Dang Van Chinh - Chief Inspector of the Ministry of Health, this license is valid from June 28 and July 1 onwards, products manufactured before that are illegal and must wait for the results of testing and quality assessment, if they meet the standards, they can continue to be circulated.

The above administrative penalty decision is the second largest fine imposed on a beverage company.

Previously, the inspectors fined URC VN over VND5.8 billion for producing and selling C2 lemon-flavored soft drinks and Dragon Red strawberry-flavored energy drinks containing lead higher than the permitted level.

In 2016, the Ministry of Health Inspectorate will conduct a comprehensive inspection of four major beverage manufacturing companies in Vietnam: URC, Coca Cola VN, Wonderfarm and Pepsi VN.

According to TTO