Milk tea brand pulled from shelves in China after alarm its packaging strongly resembles laundry detergent bottles
A brand of milk tea has been pulled from the shelves in China due to the striking resemblance of its packaging to laundry detergent bottles, after alarmed consumers feared it could mislead children into drinking cleaning liquid.
The Thai-style milk tea, produced by Nanyeli Thai Food Restaurant in Nanjing, Jiangsu province, eastern China, is packaged with Thai characters printed on the label in bottles which look exactly like those used by common laundry liquids and other cleaning products, with a similar handle and lid, new site Jimu News reported.
The milk tea was being sold in 500ml bottles in the restaurant chain's three outlets across the city.
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The unusual bottle design caused heated online discussions on Weibo over the weekend, with internet users debating the resemblance to laundry detergent.
"I've seen this kind of pack for the first time. Very funny," wrote one person.
But many others said the packaging choice was too similar and posed dangers for young children.
"Its design is novel. However, I am afraid some parents don't tell their kids about the potential danger from this type of packaging similarity. After the kids drink the milk tea once, they may drink dishwashing liquid at home thinking it is also milk tea," a second person commented.
A third person said: "You can be creative in design, but you should be socially responsible. This kind of packaging would definitely mislead children and could result in serious consequences."
The local market supervision authority said that they would launch an investigation into the packaging.
The company said it had changed the packs on Sunday after the online panic, Nanjing newspaper the Yangtze Evening News reported. But a waiter at the restaurant said they had noticed fewer customers buying the milk tea after altering the products' packaging.
Wu Zhengping, a lawyer from Hubei Shouyi Law Firm, told Jimu News that food safety is not only related to food quality but is also related to safety risks caused by packaging style and methods.
"According to the Food Safety Law, the authorities' food safety risk assessment system monitors food quality as well as the safety of the food's packaging," he said.
In January, an elderly man in Suzhou in the eastern-central coastal province of Jiangsu, mistakenly gave a bottle containing a chemical cleaning agent to his grandson to drink thinking it was orange juice, the Beijing Youth Daily reported.
The boy was later sent to hospital to have his stomach pumped. The old man made the mistake because the cleaning agent's package carried pictures of oranges and was the same colour as the fruit juice.
This article originally appeared on the South China Morning Post (SCMP).
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