Soft drinks with lead levels exceeding threshold are still being sold.

After re-testing, URC Hanoi Company Limited still allowed two batches of C2 and Red Dragon soft drinks to be circulated with lead content higher than allowed.

On May 23, during a working session with the Ministry of Health's Inspection Delegation, URC Hanoi Limited Company announced that the company had just announced the temporary suspension of circulation of two more batches of C2 and Red Dragon soft drinks because they contained lead levels 4 to 9 times higher than the permitted level.

This is the information provided to the press by the representative of the Ministry of Health Inspectorate this evening. It is worth mentioning that after receiving the test results confirming that 2 batches of products had lead content exceeding the permitted threshold, URC Company then took the samples to another place for testing and the results were safe, so the Company sold the 2 batches of products mentioned above to the market.

Three batches of C2 brand soft drinks were recalled due to lead content exceeding the threshold. Photo: Ngoc Thang/Thanh Nien

So, up to today, URC Hanoi Company has requested distributors to temporarily stop circulating 2 batches of soft drinks with lead content exceeding the permitted threshold from 4 to 9 times. That batch is C2 Lemon Flavored Green Tea, produced on January 11, 2016; expiry date is January 11, 2017 and the batch of Red Dragon Strawberry Flavored Energy Drink, produced on January 14, 2016; expiry date is October 14, 2016.

These are also the two product batches that more than 3 months ago were confirmed by the National Institute for Food Safety and Hygiene to have lead content exceeding the permitted level. Specifically, the C2 Lemon Green Tea batch had a lead content of 0.46 mg/L (9 times higher than the announced level) and the Red Dragon Strawberry Energy Drink batch had a lead content of 0.21 mg/L (4 times higher than the announced level).

According to the explanation of URC Hanoi Company, after receiving the test results of 2 batches of products contaminated with lead exceeding the above threshold, the Company sent samples to Quatest 3 (in Ho Chi Minh City) for re-testing. When the test results of Quatest 3 confirmed that the product samples had lead content within the permissible limit, URC Company allowed the 2 batches of goods to continue circulating on the market until the inspection team of the Ministry of Health Inspectorate came to work.

At today's meeting, the Ministry of Health's Inspection Team requested URC Company to report to the Ministry's Inspectorate before May 26, 2016 on the quantity of 2 batches of products that have been produced and sold, the locations of sales and the remaining quantity of each batch of goods with unsatisfactory periodic testing results; the specific quantity of each batch of raw materials used to produce the above 2 batches of products. URC Company has committed to strictly suspending the circulation of 2 batches of C2 and Red Dragon products until the Ministry of Health Inspectorate has a conclusion on which unit's testing results are correct.

Previously, on May 20, the Ministry of Health Inspectorate requested URC Company to temporarily suspend the circulation of 3 batches of C2 and Rong Do products because according to the latest test results of the National Institute of Nutrition, the lead content in these 3 batches of products was higher than the announced standard from 0.003 to 0.035 mg/L./.

According to VOV