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EIGHT million Vitasoy soft drinks manufactured in Shenzhen are being recalled after widespread complaints about sour malt soya milk.

All seven of the company's Shenzhen lines producing milk and fruit carton drinks have been temporarily suspended after complaints by consumers.

The company's managing director, Winston Lo Yau-lai, said a comprehensive review of the plant's systems and procedures would be conducted to ensure quality.

The suspect cartons are the smaller 250 millilitre size and carry bar code numbers beginning with six and the Bao'an district address of the Shenzhen plant.

They include soya milk, malt soya milk, chocolate soya milk, chocolate milk, lemon tea, chrysanthemum tea and blackcurrant and mango juices costing between $3 and $4.

But its bottled products are not affected and production in Shenzhen continues.

'It is estimated the plant will be closed for about a month to ensure a thorough investigation is conducted,' Mr Lo said.

Preliminary investigations have identified human error in the packaging process as being the cause of the problem.

Vitasoy estimates that 9,000 250 ml malt soya milk cartons produced by two of its Shenzhen production lines are affected.

Of them, 2,500 have been sold, 1,200 recalled, and 5,300 are still on shop shelves.

Among the 1,200 packs recalled, 3.2 per cent were found to be sour, but it could take two weeks to find all the suspect packs.

 People who bought sour milk could exchange them for fresh stock from the original suppliers.

Mr Lo said availability of Vitasoy products would not be affected since Shenzhen constituted just 30 per cent of production.

He said they could meet demand with its Hong Kong plant, but analysts said import costs to China would erode profits.

 Vitasoy refused to estimate the financial impact of the recall, but analysts said it would be noticeable and could also hit plans for production in Shanghai.

Abbott Lawrence from James Capel Asia said Vitasoy held a 70 per cent stake in the joint-venture Shenzhen plant which was originally expected to make a $4 million profit in the first half and break even in the second. A loss now loomed.

The company reported an eight per cent rise in profits to $68 million for the six months to September, after a 63 per cent sales rise from the Shenzhen plant which opened two years ago and employs 300.



Vitasoy recalls 8 million soft drinks