China Shuts Down Coke Plant Over Chlorine - Wall Street Journal

By LAURIE BURKITT

BEIJINGâ€"Food safety regulators in northern China have shut down production at a beverage plant owned by Coca-Cola Co. as punishment after finding chlorine in a batch of drinks made in February.

In a statement on Saturday, the quality regulator in the Chinese province of Shanxi said it found during an April inspection that a batch of drinks produced by Coca-Cola (Shanxi) Beverage Ltd. was made with water containing chlorine. The statement from the Shanxi Provincial Bureau of Quality and Technical Supervision refers to the suspension as a penalty for the chlorine levels.

The statement on the bureau's website didn't detail the findings and didn't say when the plant will resume production.

A Coca-Cola spokeswoman said the Atlanta-based company found only trace levels of chlorine in the batch made between Feb. 4 and Feb. 8. The levels were just below the national standard of purified water in China of 0.005 milligrams per liter, the spokeswoman said, adding that the chlorine level was below World Health Organization limits for drinking water.

But the company also said it is working to resolve quality and production issues at the plant, she said, adding "at no time did these issues affect the safety of our products in the market." The plant's suspension won't affect the company's business in China, the spokeswoman said.

A whistle-blower within Coca-Cola first reported the chlorine levels to local media, according to the state-owned Xinhua news agency.

The natural chemical chlorine is commonly used to kill bacteria in water treatment, but high levels can be hazardous to human health, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

China's regulators have aimed to improve the country's food safety in recent years and have frequently waged crackdowns against food-safety violators. Problems persisted years after the 2008 tainted-milk scandal in which six children were killed and 300,000 others fell ill after drinking infant formula the contained the chemical melamine.

China is a critical growth market for Coca-Cola and accounts for 7% of the company's global sales by volume. Executives say the company plans to invest more than $4 billion in the next three years.

Coca-Cola reported in mid April a 9% volume increase from China, its second-largest growth market behind India during the first quarter.