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Stores yank Supor cookware
By Lu Nengneng |
February 18, 2012, Saturday
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Print Edition
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Home appliance retailers in Shanghai are pulling Supor cookware off their shelves after reports that the company's products are harmful to health.
Major retailers like Suning and Yongle have stopped selling the cookware and are offering refunds after China Central Television reported on Thursday that excessive levels of manganese were found in Supor's products, which can cause heavy-metal poisoning and Parkinson's disease.
Up to 81 kinds of Supor cookware were found substandard during a quality check by a market watchdog in the northeastern city of Harbin last October. The products include soup pots, steamers, milk pans and electronic kettles. Some contained manganese at four times the level allowed by the national standards, the TV report said. Most of the problem Supor cookware are priced below 200 yuan (US$31.70).
The Shenzhen-listed Supor suspended trading yesterday to avoid stock price volatility caused by the disclosure. It assured in a statement yesterday that its products are safe to use, saying they passed "the authority's tests."
The company didn't mention the authority's name, but clarified that it referred to China's hygiene, physical, and chemical requirements for stainless steel products, as the nation hasn't established any standards for the precipitation amount of manganese in such food containers.
The only developed country which has specified such a limitation is Italy, Supor said. It said a test run by a third-party inspection institution in October showed its products are qualified.
The Harbin Industry and Commerce Administration, which first reported Supor's latest safety issue, said it has kept a watchful eye on the brand since 2009, when all 37 of its cookware samples for a quality test were found using substandard material.
And it was not until August 2011, when another 56 samples were found substandard, that Supor asked for a second review. But it hasn't yet submitted the required paperwork to take the inspection to the next stage, the market watchdog said. It cleared Supor's problem products from the local supermarkets later.
A dispute arose as the two sides disagreed on the standards used to judge the product safety.
The one Harbin's authority referred to focuses on the amount of manganese contained in the material, while Supor says that measurement has nothing to do with safety of stainless steel products as it doesn't represent the amount to precipitate out of the metal, which actually affects health.
Song Jinhua, an officer at the Special Steel Enterprise Association of China, was quoted by CCTV that "the precipitation of an element in the metal should be proportionate to the amount contained in the material."
Major retailers like Suning and Yongle have stopped selling the cookware and are offering refunds after China Central Television reported on Thursday that excessive levels of manganese were found in Supor's products, which can cause heavy-metal poisoning and Parkinson's disease.
Up to 81 kinds of Supor cookware were found substandard during a quality check by a market watchdog in the northeastern city of Harbin last October. The products include soup pots, steamers, milk pans and electronic kettles. Some contained manganese at four times the level allowed by the national standards, the TV report said. Most of the problem Supor cookware are priced below 200 yuan (US$31.70).
The Shenzhen-listed Supor suspended trading yesterday to avoid stock price volatility caused by the disclosure. It assured in a statement yesterday that its products are safe to use, saying they passed "the authority's tests."
The company didn't mention the authority's name, but clarified that it referred to China's hygiene, physical, and chemical requirements for stainless steel products, as the nation hasn't established any standards for the precipitation amount of manganese in such food containers.
The only developed country which has specified such a limitation is Italy, Supor said. It said a test run by a third-party inspection institution in October showed its products are qualified.
The Harbin Industry and Commerce Administration, which first reported Supor's latest safety issue, said it has kept a watchful eye on the brand since 2009, when all 37 of its cookware samples for a quality test were found using substandard material.
And it was not until August 2011, when another 56 samples were found substandard, that Supor asked for a second review. But it hasn't yet submitted the required paperwork to take the inspection to the next stage, the market watchdog said. It cleared Supor's problem products from the local supermarkets later.
A dispute arose as the two sides disagreed on the standards used to judge the product safety.
The one Harbin's authority referred to focuses on the amount of manganese contained in the material, while Supor says that measurement has nothing to do with safety of stainless steel products as it doesn't represent the amount to precipitate out of the metal, which actually affects health.
Song Jinhua, an officer at the Special Steel Enterprise Association of China, was quoted by CCTV that "the precipitation of an element in the metal should be proportionate to the amount contained in the material."
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