Nestlé Licensee AGV Products Corp. Joins Trend in Taiwan to Ban Animal Tests After Push From PETA

For Immediate Release:
April 15, 2022

Contact:
Amanda Hays 202-483-7382

Following discussions with PETA and its partner organization Kindness to Animals (KiTA), AGV Products Corp.—a company licensed by Nestlé to produce, distribute, and market its Nestea products in Taiwan—has become the eighth major food company in 10 months there to ban all animal tests not explicitly required by law.

The company 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].

AGV Products Corp. had conducted or funded animal experiments that involved mutilating and killing almost 900 animals, purportedly to support human health claims for marketing oolong tea, tomato juice, oatmeal, and other products and ingredients to consumers. These included force-feeding mice, injecting them with allergens, and starving animals. All the animals were killed and dissected.

“Consumers increasingly avoid foods that involve force-feeding, sickening, and killing animals in cruel and unreliable tests,” says PETA Vice President Shalin Gala. “AGV’s kind decision to ban tests on animals continues a growing trend toward more effective, human-relevant research that Taiwan Sugar Corp. and other Taiwanese companies should embrace.”

PETA and KiTA have successfully persuaded major food companies in Taiwan—Asia’s largest food and beverage conglomerate, Uni-President Enterprises Corp.; Taiwan’s largest health food company, Standard Foods Group; a leading soft drink maker and bottling partner of The Coca-Cola Company, Swire Coca-Cola Taiwan; and others—to end animal experiments not required by law. Via PETA’s online action alert, more than 66,000 supporters have sent e-mails to other companies, including the Taiwanese government–owned Taiwan Sugar Corp., urging them to ban animal testing, too.

PETA—whose motto reads, in part, that “animals are not ours to experiment on”—opposes speciesism, a human-supremacist worldview. For more information on PETA’s newsgathering and reporting, please visit PETA.org or follow the group on Twitter, Facebook, or Instagram.