Win! Nestlé Partner AGV Products Ends Animal Tests, Thanks to PETA

In some excellent progress for animals, AGV Products Corp., a major Taiwanese company licensed by Nestlé, has ended animal tests following conversations with PETA and hearing from more than 66,000 of our supporters.

AGV Products Corp.—which produces, distributes, and markets Nestea products in Taiwan—conducted or funded at least 12 cruel experiments on animals from 2006 to 2020. Now, it will be joining the list of companies that have left such tests behind.

AGV Products Corp. posted the new policy on its website, stating that it “will adapt to international scientific and animal welfare trends and will not conduct, sponsor, or entrust/outsource third-parties to conduct animal experiments that are not expressly required by laws.” [English translation].

How Were Animals Used in Testing by AGV Products Corp.?

At least 898 animals were mutilated and killed in AGV Products Corp.’s experiments—none of which were required by law—to support human-health claims for the marketing of oolong tea, tomato juice, oatmeal, and other goods it sold. Here are details from some of the experiments:

• Experimenters fed hamsters a high-cholesterol diet to induce hyperlipidemia, fed them tomato juice, starved them for at least 12 hours, and repeatedly took their blood.
• Experimenters injected rats with a chemical to induce diabetes, repeatedly force-fed them oolong tea, repeatedly starved them, and took their blood.
• Experimenters repeatedly force-fed mice oatmeal, repeatedly injected them with allergens that caused extremely painful allergic reactions, repeatedly took their blood, then broke their necks to kill them and dissected them.
• Experimenters fed rats barley tea and then killed and dissected them.
• Experimenters fed rats red bean water, took their blood, and then killed and dissected them.
• Experimenters repeatedly force-fed rats carbon tetrachloride to induce liver damage, fed them hibiscus, took their blood, and then killed and dissected them.

PETA Has Scored Groundbreaking Wins for Animals in Taiwanese Laboratories

In banning horrific animal tests after hearing from PETA, AGV Products Corp. joins other conscientious, forward-thinking companies in Taiwan. Other companies there that have made the compassionate decision to end archaic experiments on animals following talks with PETA scientists include the following:

• Uni-President, Asia’s largest food company
• Standard Foods Group, the largest health-food company in Taiwan and licensee of PepsiCo’s Quaker Oats Company
• Swire Coca-Cola Taiwan, one of Taiwan’s leading soft drink manufacturers and bottling partner for The Coca-Cola Company
• Vitalon Foods Group, the third-largest health-food company in Taiwan
• Lian Hwa Foods Corp., well known for its snack foods and a major supplier to convenience store giant 7-Eleven in Taiwan
• Yakult Co., Ltd., known for its probiotic drinks in Taiwan
• Grape King Bio, Taiwan’s largest biotechnology fermentation health food company, known for its popular energy drink there

PETA also recently applauded the proposed change by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) to drop animal testing from its blood pressure health claim regulation for foods, after receiving our detailed scientific critique submitted at the agency’s request. This progressive move will prevent countless animals from being used in cruel and stressful experiments that involve locking rats who were born to develop high blood pressure in laboratory cages, feeding them foods of interest in three dosages for at least eight weeks, and measuring their blood pressure response using the stress-inducing tail-cuff method.

In addition, the TFDA—after receiving scientific comments from PETA and thousands of our supporters’ pleas to end animal testing—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 now prioritize internationally recognized, non-animal tests for assessing food safety.

PETA is now pushing for the TFDA to amend a different draft regulation to prohibit health-food companies from mutilating rats in attempts to make joint-protection health claims.

What You Can Do for Animals in Taiwan

PETA is leading a global trend against animal testing—having persuaded dozens of food and beverage companies to end (or commit to never starting) experiments on animals. Animal experiments for food and beverage marketing don’t advance human health and have no place in modern research.

Please take action today to urge other Taiwanese companies to end these horrific experiments on animals for the marketing of food and beverages.