'Safe to drink' but maker of Jiugui issues an apology (3)

Removed from sale

The officials said they had studied the maximum amount of plasticizer substance a person could take - figures provided by the European Food Safety Bureau - and said it would be safe to drink 500 grams of plasticizer-tainted Jiugui liquor every day.

Jiugui liquor products had been removed from sale in most supermarkets in Shanghai and other cities and provinces across the country by Tuesday. They were also being removed from online stores, including those on Taobao.com, after the test results were revealed.

The name jiugui means an alcoholic in Chinese. But it is more likely to be translated literally according to the meaning of its Chinese characters - jiu for liquor and gui for ghost - after the plasticizer revelation.

In a play on words, a Xinhua editorial yesterday was headlined: "Is there ghost in liquor?"

Liu Xuejun, a food science professor at Jilin Agricultural University, told Xinhua there were two possible causes of excessive levels of plasticizers in liquor. They could leak from PVC tubes or vessels used for storage or transportation, or come from flavoring essence.

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