Coca-Cola says local beverages safe
Coca-Cola says local beverages safe
JAKARTA (JP): Soft drink producer PT Coca-Cola Indonesia
assured on Thursday that its products manufactured in the country
were safe for consumption amid fears sparked by outbreaks of
illness in several European countries.
"All of Coca-Cola's products in Indonesia are safe for
consumption and have nothing to do with the recent withdrawal of
Coca-Cola's products in Belgium," the company said in a
statement.
Drinks manufactured locally are from local production plants
and made according to guaranteed quality standards, it claimed.
"Thus, the public does not need to be discouraged from
enjoying the taste of the world's most popular soft drink," the
company said.
Alarm has gripped several European countries following
incidents last week in which about 100 people in Belgium and
Luxembourg, mostly schoolchildren, became ill after consuming the
soft drinks.
Belgium and Luxembourg imposed a ban on all Coca-Cola products
in the aftermath of the incidents, followed by France and the
Netherlands.
AFP reported France ordered 50 million cans of soft drinks
made by Coca-Cola pulled from store shelves.
Sales of all Coca-Cola, Coca-Cola Light, Sprite and Fanta cans
manufactured in the northern city of Dunkirk from January this
year were suspended. The plant produced drinks for the Belgian
market but French authorities fear some may have been shipped
back to France.
The company said its Antwerp factory used the wrong type of
CO2, the gas that gives Coca-Cola its fizz, making the drink
taste spoiled, and that fungicide contamination at its Dunkirk
factory caused a foul odor in soda cans.
Coca-Cola chairman and CEO Douglas Ivester in a statement on
Wednesday regretted the recent problems caused to European
consumers and pledged the firm would take "all necessary steps"
to guarantee the safety of its products.
"We deeply regret any problems encountered by our European
consumers in the past few days," Ivester said in the statement.
"For 113 years our success has been based on the trust that
consumers have in that quality. That trust is sacred to us.
"I want to reassure our consumers, customers and government
officials in Europe that The Coca-Cola Company is taking all
necessary steps to ensure that all our products meet the highest
quality standards," he said.(jsk)