PHILIPSBURG--The Inspectorate of Public Health is investigating whether consumers should be concerned about the sale of “Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey” that has double labels: a label in what appears to be Chinese imprinted on the can itself and a second label in English that is wrapped over the first label.

 

Inspector General Dr. Earl Best said on Thursday that the Inspectorate will have to track down the official importer of the product to determine whether the batch of Arizona Green Tea with double labelling is authentic, and whether it is from legitimate producers.

 

Several consumers have complained about purchasing the Green Tea and later discovering a second label on the can that can be peeled off. Several persons said they purchased the item from a supermarket located in Cole Bay and a restaurant in Simpson Bay. At least one consumer purchased the product at a major supermarket on the A. Th Illidge Road.

 

The consumer said when he was purchasing the item from the A. Th. Illidge Road establishment, personnel had just finished removing the cans from shelves. A different consumer said after he posted a picture of the can with two labels on Facebook about a week-and-a-half ago, someone from the Inspectorate contacted him for more information. The purchaser did not consume the drink due to concerns about its authenticity.

 

A third consumer said he had reported the matter to authorities after discovering the two labels. This newspaper later learnt that the report had been filed with the Economic Affairs Department.

 

When contacted for a comment local Arizona products importer Prime Distributors said it only imports these products directly from the manufacturer. Prime’s Beverage/Cash and Carry Manager Sunil Bulchandani said Prime does not carry any Arizona product that has Chinese labelling.

 

“We buy directly from the manufacturer. Our products are from the right persons,” he said. Bulchandani said it’s an open market for this particular product and as a result other persons can bring in parallel products.

 

He said someone had visited Prime Distributors to complain about double labelling recently and Prime had decided that it will look into the reports by obtaining cans of the products from the establishments that sell them and try to determine from the manufacturer whether the batch is authentic. Up to yesterday, this process was not yet completed.

 

Bulchandani, however, assured that the product with the double labelling “is not our product. It’s coming from a different market.”

 

He said he could not comment on the quality of the double labelled product. He stressed that a more stringent control is needed on the importation of products into the country.

 

When contacted for comment, the major supermarket on the A. Th. Illidge Road at which one of the double label drinks was purchased said, while the establishment sometimes buys directly from a distributor in the United States, the batch of Arizona Green Tea with Ginseng and Honey that it currently has on its shelves came from Prime Distributors. An invoice dated October 8, 2015, for 24, 15.5oz. Arizona Green Tea was provided.

 

The supermarket also provided the website and other information of the distributor in the US from which it sometimes purchases the product and said the supermarket was not responsible for double labelling of the products it purchases. The supermarket official, however, noted that it is an authentic product adding that some items have labels in both Spanish and English, some in both French and English and the establishment didn’t understand why Chinese and English is viewed as a problem.

 

In the meantime, Best said if, after the investigations, the labelling is found to be illegally placed it will be removed from shelves. He stressed the importance of Customs controlling items, such as these, coming into the country. He said it was the role of Customs to monitor these things.

 

The Daily Herald