MY water brand Malee investigates and opens up comms channels to regain trust

Malaysian bottled drinking water manufacturer Malee Mineral Water said it is currently working with the Ministry of Health Malaysia and the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) to fully investigate the recent water quality issue highlighted by SFA. It is also opening up its communication channels regarding the incident and encouraged consumers to email them at info@malee.com.my.According to a circular on SFA’s website, consignments of bottled drinking water from Malee Mineral Water were detected with Pseudomonas aeruginosa. As such, the import of all bottled drinking and mineral water from Malee is not permitted, with immediated effect, SFA said. In a statement on its website, Malee director Pek Woei Yi said that its water brands Sukahati, Ro Fina and Still are not related to the incident and are not distributed in Singapore.“We are currently working with Ministry of Health Malaysia and Singapore Food Agency to fully investigate this incident. Please be assured that we are doing everything in our capacity to resolve this matter,” he said.Pek added that water quality and safety has been its “utmost priority” and it takes all cases very seriously. “All manufacturing processes and corrective actions are taken in line with HACCP and ISO22000 Food Safety Management System that we adhere to in our daily production,” Pek added.This comes shortly after the SFA also detected the presence of Pseudomonas aeruginosa in Starfresh bottled drinking water, a product imported from Malaysia by Radha Exports. SFA has since directed the importer to recall all the implicated products and the recall is ongoing.Pseudomonas aeruginosa is a common environmental bacteria and can be found in faeces, soil, water and sewage. Use or consumption of products contaminated with Pseudomonas aeruginosa can cause a range of infections but rarely causes serious illness in healthy individuals.In 2017, Ribena Malaysia recalled five types of its concentrate after it found that the products were exposed to air during the bottling process. The company also posted on Facebook to inform its fans and consumers about its decision. It also warned consumers not to have the product if it appears to be “unusual, taste or smell sourish”.During the same year, J&J’s ACUVUE also voluntarily recalled a limited number of its brand contact lenses due to unmet quality standards. The products impacted and distributed in Singapore is limited to 929 boxes, 0.03% of the total products sold since their release in the market. The recall affects products from its ACUVUE OASYS and ACUVUE OASYS for Astigmatism lines.