<P> The Lipton tea business was acquired by consumer goods company Unilever in a number of separate transactions, starting with the purchase of the United States and Canadian Lipton business in 1938 and completed in 1972 when Unilever bought the remainder of the global Lipton business from Allied Suppliers . </P> <P> In 1991, Unilever created a first joint venture with PepsiCo, the Pepsi Lipton Partnership, for the marketing of ready to drink (bottled and canned) teas in North America . This was followed in 2003 by a second joint venture, Pepsi - Lipton International (PLI), covering many non-United States markets . PLI was expanded in September 2007 to include a number of large European markets . PepsiCo and Unilever each control 50 per cent of the shares of these joint ventures . </P> <P> Due to the 2008 Chinese milk scandal, food giant Unilever started recalling its Lipton milk tea powder in Hong Kong and Macau on 30 September 2008 . The tea powder, which used Chinese milk powder as its raw ingredient, was recalled after the company's internal checks found traces of melamine in the powder . </P> <P> In 2011 PETA criticized Unilever for conducting and funding experiments on rabbits, pigs and other animals in an attempt to make human health claims about the tea's ingredients . According to the animal rights organization, Unilever decided to end the practice for Lipton products after receiving more than 40,000 appeals from PETA supporters and days before PETA made plans to launch its "Lipton CruelTEA" campaign Unilever no longer test their products on animals unless required to by governments as part of their regulatory requirements . </P>

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