15,000 cases of Budweiser withdrawn after bottle scare

By Charlie Charalambous

THOUSANDS of bottles of America’s bestselling Budweiser beer are being withdrawn from the Cypriot market due to a design fault.

The local importer of Budweiser beer estimates that some 15,000 cases of 25cl and 33cl bottles are affected but most of these are stocked up in warehouses.

“A fax from the company today has informed us that when the bottles are opened there is a tendency for the neck to break,” said the Commerce Ministry’s consumer protection service director George Mitides.

“There have been complaints of minor injuries but not in Cyprus,” said Mitides.

Cyprus is one of 12 European countries with twist-off bottles manufactured in Spain or Portugal which could be faulty.

Anheuser-Busch Cos has recalled 5.8 million bottles (240,000 cases) from those countries affected, which include Denmark, Sweden, Germany and Holland. Over half the recalled bottles are in Spain and the 12 countries affected only account for six per cent of the company’s European sales.

“We have started withdrawing bottles as a precautionary measure even though there have been no incidents in Cyprus,” said Erotokritos Antoniades, speaking on behalf of the local importer yesterday.

“There aren’t that many cases on sale, but we shall complete the operation by next Tuesday and in the meantime fetch a fresh batch from Greece which is not affected,” he added.

Mitides said that all Budweisers with a best before date of August 15 2000 would have to be withdrawn from store shelves.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.