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The Centre for Food Safety (CFS) today (March 8) appealed to retailers to stop selling the following "Jermuk" brand mineral water and the public not to consume them.
Details of the affected products are as follows: -
1. Labelled as "Jermuk Original Sparkling Natural Mineral Water Fortified With Natural Gas From The Spring". The product is additionally labelled as "2006 Jermuk Mayr Gortsaran CJSC" and "Imported by: Zetlian Bakery Inc.";
2. Labelled as "Jermuk Sodium Calcium Bicarbonate and Sulphate Mineral Water." The product is additionally labelled as "Bottled by ARPI Plant, Republic of Armenia" and "Exclusive US importer and distributor: Importers Direct Wholesale Co., Los Angeles, CA";
3. Labelled as "Jermuk, Natural Mineral Water Sparkling". The product is additionally labelled as "Bottled by Jermuk Group CJSC" and "Sale Agent Kradjian Importing Co. Inc".
A CFS spokesman said the appeal was made as the Food and Drug Administration of the United States had issued a warning to consumers not to drink the above mineral water products which were found to contain heavy metal "arsenic". The levels detected ranged from 500 to 600 ppb, exceeding the international standard of 10 ppb.
"We are contacting the US authorities for more information and closely monitoring the situation," he said.
Ends/Thursday, March 8, 2007
Issued at HKT 19:28
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