PETA Victory in Taiwan Will Prevent Animals from Suffering in Tests

After talking with PETA, Uni-President Enterprises Corporation—the largest food and beverage conglomerate in Asia—has implemented a new policy banning all animal tests not explicitly required by law. Over the last few months, PETA has also persuaded five other large food companies to stop testing on animals.

Taiwan-based Uni-President conducted or funded at least 17 experiments on animals from 2000 to 2021 that involved mutilating and killing at least 917 animals, purportedly to support human-health claims for marketing green tea, milk, yogurt drinks, and other products and ingredients to consumers—even though Taiwanese regulations don’t require animal tests for these purposes.

The company’s move followed a series of PETA successes in Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia, including with Standard Foods Group, Taiwan’s largest health-food company and a PepsiCo licensee; Vitalon Foods Company, a major beverage manufacturer; Lian Hwa Foods Corporation, a popular snack-food producer and major supplier to Uni-President’s 7-Eleven in Taiwan; Swire Coca-Cola (Taiwan), The Coca-Cola Company’s bottling partner in Taiwan; and Yakult Taiwan Co., Ltd., Yakult Honsha’s subsidiary in Taiwan.

How Did These Companies Test on Animals?

Among other horrors, experimenters funded by these food and beverage companies have done the following:

• Vitalon Foods Company: Experimenters fed mice alcohol to induce fatty liver disease, repeatedly force-fed them turmeric, repeatedly starved them and took their blood, then killed and dissected them.
• Lian Hwa Foods Corp.: Experimenters fed hamsters a high-cholesterol diet to induce hyperlipidemia and fatty liver disease, fed them oats, starved them for at least 12 hours, repeatedly took their blood, then killed and dissected them.
• Swire Coca-Cola (Taiwan): Experimenters fed hamsters a high-cholesterol diet with or without a green-tea product, starved them for 12 hours, took their blood, then killed and dissected them.
• Yakult Taiwan Co., Ltd.: Experimenters repeatedly force-fed mice a yogurt drink, forced them to inhale allergens to induce asthma and respiratory inflammation, took their blood, then killed and dissected them.

All these companies conducted or funded animal tests not required by law to acquire health-food licenses in Taiwan in attempts to boost the sales of their products—but thanks to PETA, they now have policies banning such practices.

PETA’s Progress to End Animal Testing in Taiwan

PETA has also scored several regulatory successes in Taiwan that are shifting the food-testing landscape. After receiving scientific comments from PETA as well as pleas from thousands of our supporters’ to end animal testing, the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) made historic announcements that scores of vulnerable animals would no longer be drowned or electroshocked in order for companies in Taiwan to make anti-fatigue health claims for food and beverages and that the agency would also prioritize internationally recognized, non-animal tests for assessing food safety. In addition to pushing for the TFDA to amend a draft regulation to prohibit health-food companies from mutilating rats in attempts to make joint-protection health claims, PETA is leading the global movement against animal testing—having persuaded dozens of food and beverage companies to end (or commit to never starting) experiments on animals.

Take Action for Animals in Taiwan

PETA members and supporters are calling on more than a dozen of Taiwan’s other food companies—including Nestlé licensee AGV Products Corp.—to commit to banning pointless and cruel tests on animals. Please take action today to demand that these companies stop experimenting on and killing animals in order to market food and beverage products.