CCBPL soft drink plant in Pakistan sealed for unhygienic conditions

LAHORE: A soft drink plant of a multinational beverage giant has been sealed in Pakistan's Punjab province for maintaining unhygienic conditions.

This is the first time in recent years that a plant of a multinational soft drink company has been sealed on such grounds.

A district administration team yesterday raided the plant of Coca Cola Bottlers Private Limited (CCBPL) in Rahim Yar Khan district of Punjab, about 400 kms from here, and sealed it after finding insects and lizards in the production area of the plant.

Assistant Commissioner (Rahim Yar Khan) Javed Ahmed said the CCBPL had not made proper arrangements to control the insects at the plant.

The team sent the soft drink samples to a laboratory after sealing the plant and instructed its administration to withdraw the whole stock of 'Sprite' one liter glass bottles from the market and destroy it.

The government team also got FIR registered against Coca Cola distributer, production manager, quality response manager and storekeeper.

The raid was conducted on a complaint by a grocery store owner that a lizard was found in a one litre bottle of Sprite, delivered to him from the plant on September 12.

CCBPL Clint Services Manager Mumtaz Warriach told Dawn that the company came to know through media that a shopkeeper in Rahim Yar Khan had reportedly found some "foreign matter" in a bottle.

"We are ready to offer our technical expertise and full cooperation in this matter," he said.

He said the company should be allowed to carry out tests to determine whether the bottle was genuine or a counterfeit product.