Hitejinro Co., a major liquor maker, has been recalling 1.24 million cans of its FiLite beer after a semisolid substance was found in the product, a company official said Friday.

Hitejinro began to receive complaints of the substance in the beer cans from its customers in late April. Of the 1.24 million cans affected, 1.18 million cans were already recalled, the company official said on condition of anonymity, adding that the substance is not harmful to health.

The move came as officials at the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety visited a Hitejinro plant in Hongcheon, 98 kilometers northeast of Seoul, and found that the company used detergents only due to a lack of sterilizers to clean the beer injector on March 13, March 25, April 3 and April 17.

Hitejinro is required to use detergents and sterilizers in the cleaning process.

As a result, the injector was contaminated with pediococcus damnosus, which in turn combined with carbohydrates and protein in the FiLite lager beer products to generate a mucus-like
substance, the ministry said in a statement.

The ministry will issue a correction order and impose a fine on Hitejinro over the violation of the Food Sanitation Act, the statement said.

The FiLite products are only sold in South Korea.

Source: Yonhap News Agency