Group Danone, the world's biggest yogurt maker, said Chinese officials seized about 118 tons of its Evian mineral water for breaching local safety rules.
The water, which arrived in China in February, failed quality inspections by Shanghai customs officials for having excessive amounts of bacteria, the Paris-based company said in an e-mailed statement today. The water is being kept in a warehouse and will be shipped back to France, it said.
China's government applies a bacteria standard "different from that set by the World Health Organization," the company said in the statement.
Danone joins Yum! Brands Inc.'s KFC chain andretailers such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. among international consumer goods companies to have fallen foul of Chinese health regulators in the past two years. Procter & Gamble Co., the largest U.S. consumer- products maker, in September halted sales of Japanese-made SK-II cosmetics in China after a health regulator said they contained dangerous and banned substances.
