Woman charges she found paper in Vita Malt bottle

The St Vincent Brewery Limited is fed up of persons who are trying to blackmail them, claiming to have found foreign particles in drinks manufactured by the company.

They say they will, however, continue to assess each complaint made about contamination in their bottled drinks, on a case-by-case basis.{{more}}

Technical Director of the Brewery Albert Porter says that especially around Carnival and Christmas time, many persons come claiming to have brought and ingested a brewery product that had a foreign particle in it.

He said that quite often officials at the Brewery are bombarded with threats by persons who ask for up to $1 million or else.

“They asked for up to $1 million. If not, they say they are going to the press,” said Porter.

Last Wednesday, Porter walked SEARCHLIGHT through a 20 minute tour of the company’s 9-stage purification and cleansing process. He said that the Brewery was very open about its operations and wanted to allow us to see the process for ourselves.

“Each bottle, including new ones, goes through 40 to 45 minutes of cleaning,” Porter said, pointing out every stage of the Hazard Analysis and Critical Control Points (HACCP) certified process.

“The Brewery is one of only two companies in St Vincent and the Grenadines that is HACCP certified,” Porter said.

SEARCHLIGHT witnessed as a bottle with a small piece of paper inside was rejected by the machine, in addition to bottles with chipped edges, along with other faults.

The Brewery official, however, did not say that the process was perfect, but rather suggested that it

was highly unlikely that much, if anything, gets by the processes.

Tell that to Rosemarie Walker, a vendor of Vermont.

The distressed Walker came to SEARCHLIGHT’s office last Monday, December 31st, carrying what seemed by our check, to be a sealed Vita Malt bottle containing a snack bar foil wrapper inside.

Walker said that she had just bought a case of the malt, along with other drinks at a Kingstown supermarket to sell. Her seven-year-old son Jeonne was feeling thirsty and she told him to have one of the malts.

“I told him to open one, get a glass with ice and drink it, but he came to me and said he can’t drink it and showed me what was inside,” Walker said.

“Suppose it was cold and my child drank it without seeing what was inside?” she asked.

She told SEARCHLIGHT that she had visited a lawyer and was planning to make a complaint to the Brewery.

This she did on Wednesday, and was told by Brewery officials that they would have a response regarding her claim in three days.

Meanwhile, while not

willing to comment on the individual incident. Brewery officials confirmed that Walker did make a complaint, and said it was being investigated.