How does the coffee production process relate to this Henan oolong tea failure?
Henan's 2024 Issue 39 food safety notice reported 24 non-compliant batches out of 1,040 samples across 21 categories. One failure was a Yangtze River North Bank oolong tea-flavored beverage, nominally made by the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory, sold in Shangqiu. Its total bacterial count exceeded the national food safety standard, an indicator of production hygiene rather than a pathogen finding.
Total bacterial count reflects cleanliness during the production process; a high initial count in raw materials or weak hygiene control on the line can push it above limits. The manufacturer already had a prior failed sampling record and a court finding for infringing Nongfu Spring packaging, and is listed as a dishonest judgment debtor. Its oolong tea packaging also closely resembles Suntory oolong tea, and some buyers on e-commerce platforms said they felt misled.
The 2024 Issue 39 food safety notice recently published by the Henan Provincial Market Supervision Administration shows that out of 1,040 batches of food across 21 major categories sampled, a total of 24 batches failed to meet standards. Among them, a "Yangtze River North Bank" oolong tea-flavored beverage, nominally produced by the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory, made the blacklist because its total bacterial count did not comply with national standards. An investigation found that this manufacturer not only has a prior record of failing product sampling inspections, but was also found by a court to have infringed rights due to counterfeiting Nongfu Spring's packaging, and has now been listed as a dishonest judgment debtor. Even more noteworthy is that the outer packaging of this oolong tea is highly similar to Suntory oolong tea, and many consumers who mistakenly bought it on e-commerce platforms cried foul after realizing they had been duped.
Recently, the Henan Provincial Market Supervision Administration issued a notice regarding 24 batches of non-compliant food (2024 Issue 39). Previously, the administration organized sampling inspections of 1,040 batches of samples across 21 major food categories, including catering food, dairy products, and beverages, and detected 24 non-compliant batches among 7 major food categories including beverages, involving 1 batch of "Yangtze River North Bank" oolong tea-flavored beverage.
The notice shows that the Yangtze River North Bank oolong tea-flavored beverage sold by the Shangge Side Food Store in the Shangqiu Urban-Rural Integration Demonstration Zone, nominally produced by the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory, had a microbial contamination problem. In the sampling inspection, the total bacterial count contained in this batch of oolong tea beverage did not comply with the national food safety standard.
It is understood that the total bacterial count is an indicator microorganism index, not a pathogenic bacteria index, and is mainly used to evaluate the cleanliness of food and reflect whether the food meets hygiene requirements during the production process.
The reasons for the total bacterial count exceeding the standard may be a relatively high initial bacterial count in the raw materials, or that individual enterprises may not have strictly controlled the hygiene conditions of the production and processing process as required, inadequate cleaning and disinfection of packaging containers and utensils, and it may also be related to inadequate sealing of product packaging and improper control of storage and transportation conditions.
This is not the first time that the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory has fallen into the scandal of failing sampling inspections. As early as 2020, the Hebei Provincial Market Supervision Bureau published 25 batches of non-compliant food, involving blended oil, vinegar, purified water, and other products. The small sweet orange produced by the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory appeared on the list of non-compliant food because the detected value of carbon dioxide gas capacity did not comply with the national food safety standard.
It is worth mentioning that at present, the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory has also been judged by the Tianjin Binhai New Area People's Court to stop infringement and pay economic compensation to the plaintiff because it produced and sold packaging similar to Nongfu Spring's "Liliangdi" vitamin water product. However, because the Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory failed to perform as expected, it has been listed by the court as a dishonest judgment debtor, and the person in charge, Zhao Fugui, has also been restricted from high consumption.
After the failed sampling inspection of "Yangtze River North Bank" oolong tea was exposed by the media, on social media, some netizens reported that the packaging appearance of this beverage is highly similar to the hit Suntory oolong tea in the tea beverage world, prompting some netizens to question it as a knockoff product.
Some netizens claimed that when placing an order on an e-commerce platform, they saw oolong tea with packaging suspected to be Suntory's, with a 420ml bottle priced at 1 yuan. Because they liked Suntory's taste and the price was very cost-effective, they placed the order without carefully looking at the promotional page, but what they received was this Yangtze River North Bank brand oolong tea. The netizen exclaimed that it was outrageous.
It is understood that there are many netizens who have had the above experience. Everyone said that next time they must look carefully, because this knockoff not only has an extremely long ingredient list, but also tastes very bad.
According to data from Qichacha, the Xunxian Fuxinyuan Beverage Factory was established on March 18, 2014. It is a sole proprietorship small and micro enterprise, with Zhang Haijun as the investor, a capital contribution of 1 million yuan, and the factory site located in Shantang Town, Xunxian County, Hebi City.
Image source: Internet
The above content is compiled by CoffeeHunters, a coffee news website.
