Win! Asian Food Giant ‘Grape King Bio’ Bans Animal Tests, Thanks to PETA

Taiwanese food giant Grape King Bio, known for its popular energy drink, recently ended tests on animals after hearing from PETA and our friends at Kindness to Animals (KiTA). More than 63,000 PETA supporters wrote to Grape King Bio, helping to secure this major win for animals.

How Were Animals Used in Tests by Grape King Bio?

Grape King Bio is Taiwan’s largest biotech fermentation health food company and had conducted or funded at least 10 animal experiments from 2002 to 2020 that involved mutilating and killing no fewer than 1,333 animals. The experiments were carried out to support health claims for products including probiotics, reishi mushrooms, and goji berries.

Grape King Bio will be joining the list of companies that have left cruel tests like these behind:

• Experimenters repeatedly force-fed mice reishi mushrooms, repeatedly injected them with allergens that caused extremely painful allergic reactions, repeatedly took their blood, then broke their necks to kill them before dissection.
• Experimenters repeatedly force-fed rats carbon tetrachloride to induce liver damage, repeatedly force-fed them stout camphor fungus, took their blood, then killed and dissected them.
• Experimenters forced mice to inhale allergens to induce asthma, forced them to inhale chemical vapors, repeatedly force-fed them probiotics, took their blood, then killed and dissected them.
• Experimenters fed mice a high-fat, high-sugar diet to induce high blood sugar, repeatedly force-fed them a blend of Chinese medicine (including goji berries and cinnamon), repeatedly starved them, and took their blood.
• Experimenters repeatedly force-fed mice amino acids, starved them for up to 24 hours, and dropped them into beakers filled with water to observe how long they struggled before drowning or remaining underwater for eight consecutive seconds. If the animals learned to float and conserve energy, experimenters stirred the water to force them to struggle. To speed up the drowning process, experimenters tied lead wires to the mice, which made it harder for them to swim.

PETA Is Scoring Groundbreaking Wins for Animals in Laboratories Across Taiwan

In banning horrific animal tests, Grape King Bio joins other conscientious, forward-thinking companies in Taiwan that, following talks with PETA scientists, have made the compassionate decision to end archaic experiments on animals. These companies 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 in Taiwan for its probiotic drinks

PETA also recently applauded the decision by the Taiwan Food and Drug Administration (TFDA) to drop animal testing from its blood pressure health claim regulation for foods. This change came after receiving PETA’s 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—bred to develop high blood pressure—in laboratory cages, feeding them foods of interest in three dosages for at least eight weeks, and measuring the animals’ blood pressure response using the stress-inducing tail-cuff method.

Furthermore, the TFDA—after receiving separate scientific comments from PETA and pleas to end animal testing from thousands of our supporters—made historic announcements that scores of vulnerable animals will 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 will 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, are not required by law, and have no place in research.

Please take action today to urge other Taiwanese food and beverage companies to end horrific experiments on animals.