PepsiCo Vietnam has just been fined VNDV25 million (USD1,116) for failing to carry out proper testing on its products.


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The fine was announced on Thursday by the Ministry of Health after a 45-day inspection on food safety at the company.

According to a report from the ministry's inspection team, Suntory PepsiCo Vietnam Beverage Company has done regular tests on its products but not enough as defined in the ministry's regulations.

"PepsiCo only carried out regular tests on representative specimens of their products," said deputy chief of the Ministry of Health's Inspection Department, Nguyen Van Nhien.

The company was asked to strictly follow regulations and do regular testing for all and each of their products, Nhien said.

The Ministry of Health started inspection on food safety at the fully foreign-owned joint venture in Vietnam between US PepsiCo Inc. and Japan’s Suntory Holdings Limited beginning September 6.

The inspectors looked into the firm’s operations from January 1, 2015 to present and previous related periods as well.

Inspectors also checked some of the company’s distribution centres, suppliers of material, food additives, food processing aids and package.

In late July, the ministry fined Coca-Cola Beverages Vietnam Ltd. a total of VND434 million (USD19,186) for violations in production of a food supplement according to the Vietnam Plus Newspaper.

An inspection carried out by the ministry in June found that three plants of Coca-Cola Vietnam in Ho Chi Minh City, Da Nang and Hanoi produced food supplements without obtaining any certificate on food hygiene and safety granted by the ministry.

In addition, the ministry also found the content of vitamin B9 (acid folic) in the company's Samurai Strawberry energy drink was lower than declared. The ministry ordered Coca-Cola Vietnam to recall the batches, which will expire in May 2017.

In late May this year, URC Hanoi Co. Ltd., the Vietnamese branch of the Filipino food and beverage firm Universal Robina Corporation (URC), was also fined VND5.812 billion (USD257,110) by the ministry for producing and selling products with excessive lead content.

Dtinews