(Yicai Global) March 18 -- Many supermarkets in Beijing, including those of French retailer Carrefour, have been caught red-handed due to selling counterfeit Starbucks coffee. 

Beijing's Municipal Food and Drug Administration has begun its investigation into instant coffee products that have an anti-forgery tag issued by Guangzhou Baiyi Food Trade, Beijing News reported today. Baiyi has not answered Beijing News' phone inquiries. Starbucks China has confirmed that this company is not one of its resellers. 

Two Carrefour supermarkets in Beijing's Chaoyang and Dongcheng districts, import store BC Store House, and a community supermarket in Chaoyang have been selling the product which has five bags of instant coffee in a box, priced as high as CNY52 (USD7.70).

The batch has been taken off the shelves, a person in charge of several Carrefour stores told the media outlet.

Beijing News took a package to one of the Seattle-headquartered java giant's outlets in Beijing and the store manager confirmed that it is a counterfeit. The real product includes four bags, has a slightly different design without an anti-forgery tag, and sells for CNY40. 

Founded last April, Baiyi sells pre-packaged foods and nuts wholesale to shops as well as on Tmall e-commerce platform and it has a registered capital of CNY500,000 (USD74,500), according to business information platform Tianyancha.

Editor: Emmi Laine