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INTRO
Coca-Cola China's Vice President Bai Changbo has defended the company's product safety, after rumors that its orange juice contains toxic fungicide.
On Tuesday, Bai said the company had demanded a police investigation into the rumors - and that the perpetrators, bear legal responsibility.
The world's biggest beverage company has become the latest to be embroiled in China's food safety scares.
Following recent rumors that its orange juice, contains illegal fungicide - a toxic chemical.
On Tuesday, Bai Changbo, vice-president of Coca-Cola Greater China, said the firm had filed a police report...
And said, quote:
"We take the move not only to safeguard the reputation of our brand, but also to help create a fair and healthy business environment, an environment where virtue is rewarded and vice punished."
The rumors stem from an online report, claiming Coca-Cola China admitted in a CCTV interview that its orange juice products, contain a strain of fungicide, called Carbendazim...
The report cited Topics in Focus, one of the most-watched shows on China Central Television...
And supposedly warned customers not to drink orange juice sold by Coca-Cola.
The American soft drink giant says the reports are untrue and that Topics in Focus never made any such report.
On Tuesday, we contacted CCTV to find out... Its news center referred us to CCTV's website, where all episodes of Topics in Focus are posted.
We searched the site, but couldn't find anything on Carbendazim in Coca-Cola products.
The company says the rumor began from concerns with Brazilian orange products a year ago - but that the truth was distorted.
At that time, Coca-Cola found Carbendazim - not approved for use on citrus in the United States - was used to combat mold on orange trees in Brazil - a major supplier of orange juice globally...
Coca-Cola headquarters alerted the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which said after risk assessment, orange juice from Brazil is safe to drink.
Coca-Cola China also sent samples of orange juice imported from Brazil to China's National Food Quality Supervision and Inspection Center.
A report released on January 19th, 2012 by the center said the amount of Carbendazim in samples submitted by Coca-Cola "can not be measured."
Coca-Cola has been in China for more than three decades, and is estimated to have invested an accumulated 9 billion dollars in China by 2014...
Giving it plenty to lose, if its reputation is tainted in the world's second largest economy.
