MIZONE CASE

Mizone pulls product with incomplete label

The Jakarta Post, Jakarta

The producer of isotonic beverage Mizone is pulling the product from stores around the country because it has not included complete information about preservatives on bottle labels.
"We will withdraw our products from the market and replace the labels with complete information about preservative content," PT Tirta Investama marketing director Didi Nugrahadi said.
"An internal investigation is in progress on why we only printed one instead of two preservatives on our bottle labels. We truly regret the incident," Didi said Wednesday.
The Food and Drug Monitoring Agency (BPOM), which ordered a recall of the product, is allowing Mizone to take longer to relabel the bottles than its original Dec. 12 deadline, Didi said.
Tirta Investama, the holding company of mineral water company Aqua Group, has 30 depots, 50 distributors and more than 1 million outlets across Indonesia, he said.
The blue-label "Mizone Active Hydration" has been widely available on the local market for about a year in its "Passion Fruit" and "Orange Lime" versions.
While the preservative calium sorbat, which curbs the growth of fungus, is listed on the label, the company neglected to add natrium benzoat, a preservative commonly used in edible products.
"Even without the complete information, the preservatives are considered safe. The perception that consuming both preservatives causes lupus, an autoimmune disease, is also false," he said.
The maximum allowable amount of natrium benzoat in drinks here is 600 milligrams a liter, and 1,000 mg a liter for calium sorbat.
Mizone drinks have 100 mg a liter of natrium benzoat and 100 mg of calium sorbat, he said.
The makers of four other beverages -- Zestea, Jungle Juice, Zporto and Mogu-Mogu -- also failed to list complete preservative information on their products and would have to temporarily recall their products, BPOM said.
Indonesian Consumers Foundation head Husna Zahir said the recall of Mizone was not a matter of safety.
"Why was a permit (for the beverage) issued before?" The procedures for approving the drink were questionable, she said.
Either BPOM had failed to study the product properly or Tirta Investama had added the preservative without the government's consent, she said.
"Moreover, what type of compensation should the Mizone producer give to retailers all over the country? They the ones losing out because of this incident," Husna said.
The 1999 Consumer Protection Law rules that producers and distributors of products that fail to list complete content information on packaging can face a maximum of five years' jail and fines of up to Rp 2 billion (US$219,000). (03)