Producing ground coffee from coffee husks mixed with battery eagle
The owner of the facility confessed to purchasing waste coffee, coffee husks, and broken coffee from dealers, then using black powder from batteries mixed with water to dye the coffee and sell it.
News from the Environmental Police Department of Dak Nong Province Police on April 17 said that the unit had just coordinated with other authorities to catch a facility processing "dirty" coffee by dyeing coffee with black battery powder.
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| Batteries are crushed to get coffee dye powder. |
Initial information said that on April 16, from a source of information reported by the people, the Environmental Police force of Dak Nong Provincial Police coordinated with the Inspectorate of the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development of Dak Nong Province to raid the coffee powder processing facility of Ms. Nguyen Thi Loan's family (in village 13, Dak Wer commune, Dak R'lap district, Dak Nong province).
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| Authorities raided and inspected a dirty coffee processing facility. |
At the time of the inspection, the authorities discovered dozens of tons of "dirty" coffee mixed with soil and stone powder in Ms. Loan's coffee processing facility. In addition, at the processing facility, the authorities also seized 2 pots containing crushed batteries (about 35 kg), 1 bucket containing black water (about 10 kg) that had been dissolved with batteries, 12 tons of ground coffee that had been dyed black with batteries by the owner and prepared for packaging, along with many machines and items related to the production of "dirty" coffee.
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| Large amounts of toxic chemicals from batteries used to dye coffee. |
Confessing to the authorities, Ms. Loan said that this coffee production facility has been in operation for many years. To have a source of raw materials, Ms. Loan sends people to collect waste coffee, coffee husks, broken coffee, etc. from agents every day. Then, she buys flattened batteries, mixes the black powder of the batteries with water, and dyes it with coffee. After the coffee is dyed, the facility roasts, grinds, and packages it to sell on the market for profit.
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| Inside Mrs. Loan's dirty coffee processing facility. |
According to Ms. Loan, since the beginning of 2018, her facility has sold more than 3 tons of "dirty" coffee that has been dyed black with batteries as above. Currently, the facility has been recorded by the authorities, all evidence has been temporarily seized and samples have been taken for testing to continue the investigation.
