50Lan hit by another scandal: Shanshui honey detected with veterinary drug oxytetracycline, product line pulled from shelves
The tea-drink troubles at well-known hand-shaken beverage chain 50 Lan have stirred up another storm. Following the tea-drink scandal, when its Four Seasons Spring tea was found to contain fipronil pesticide residue above the limit, recently the company's raw materials crisp plums and black tea latte were also found to have excessive preservative sulfur dioxide and E. coli respectively. Recently 50 Lan voluntarily sent the honey used in its drinks to SGS for testing, and it unexpectedly tested positive for the veterinary drug oxytetracycline, which does not comply with regulations. On the previous day 50 Lan reported this to the Tainan City Health Bureau on its own initiative and simultaneously pulled the product from shelves; currently all honey-related drinks sold by 50 Lan have been suspended from sale.
It is understood that 50 Lan's honey comes from the "Bee Workshop Assorted Honey - Lychee Honey" produced by Shanshui Honey Co., Ltd. of Yunlin County, but this company's honey has a long record of quality problems. The year before last it was exposed by "Business Today" for producing blended longan honey that contained no honey ingredients, and when the Consumers' Foundation conducted a survey of honey on the market earlier this year it also found that Shanshui Honey's Classic Four Seasons Honey had a diastase activity test result that did not meet the national standard, raising concerns that caramel may have been added to boost color and flavor.
On the 24th the Tainan City Health Bureau received a report from 50 Lan that the honey used in its drinks had been found by SGS testing to contain 987 ppb of oxytetracycline (the standard is that it must not be detected). It is understood that this batch of honey was a customized product that 50 Lan purchased on July 13 from Shanshui Honey Co., Ltd. of Yunlin County, totaling 2290 jars, with an expiry date extending to June 30, 2017.
After voluntarily reporting it, 50 Lan recalled honey from its tea-drink stores across Taiwan the previous day, removing a total of 1180 jars from shelves. The Tainan City Health Bureau also notified the Yunlin County Health Bureau yesterday to investigate the source of the non-compliant honey product, Shanshui Honey Co., Ltd., and to sample and test other batches of honey products and continue to monitor the recall situation.
Hsu Hui-mei, section chief of the Food and Drug Administration Section of the Tainan City Health Bureau, indicated that 50 Lan still has one new batch of honey undergoing testing, and the Health Bureau will continue to monitor whether the test results for this new batch of honey meet the standards.