Coca Cola Apologises to China Over Chlorine Content Controversy

A public apology from Coca-Cola - David G. Brooks, president of Coca-Cola Greater China and Korea, said, "We failed to give a timely report on the situation to the superintendent departments, media and the public. We hereby sincerely apologize for that."

7 May 2012 --- Coca Cola has apologised for the way it dealt with a 'scandal' that arose after some of its drinks were alleged to be contaminated with chlorine.

A public apology from Coca-Cola - David G. Brooks, president of Coca-Cola Greater China and Korea, said, "We failed to give a timely report on the situation to the superintendent departments, media and the public. We hereby sincerely apologize for that."

Coca-Cola's production line in North China's Shanxi Province was forced to halt after chlorine was found in some of its drinks due to errors made during a routine pipe maintenance procedure.

David G. Brooks said, "We have confirmed that traces of dissociate residual chlorine flowed into the water used for producing drinks during a pipe refitting project on February 3, when some employees, due to errors in operation, opened the valve between the beverage production processing water pipe and the daily-use water production pipe. This is the root cause we have found in our investigations."

According to Brooks, the contamination involved more than 120-thousand boxes of product, of which nearly 76-thousand came onto the market while the rest stayed sealed in the company's warehouse. The company has taken corrective measures to minimize the negative impact due to this scandal.

David G. Brooks said, "We began on Wednesday to exchange the products produced between February 4 and 8 and we accept any demand for refund or exchange from consumers. We will destroy all the contaminated products gradually according to the global standards set up by the Coca-Cola and in line with environmental protection."

He also said the "customers and distributors who have the drinks in their possession, or even bottles that had contained a contaminated beverage, can call the company to have them replaced or get their money returned."

He said products returned from those batches will be destroyed under the close supervision of the Shanxi Bureau of Quality Supervision and Inspection, state-run China Daily reported.

Mr Brooks said the General Manager of the company's Shanxi branch had stepped down and a successor has been appointed to oversee the steps that company must take to resume production in the province, which will only occur after it has received approval from the Shanxi food-safety regulator.

China, the third-largest market for Coca-Cola, accounts for 8 percent of the company's global sales by volume.