. Yet mango, fruit and creme pods continue to line store shelves — albeit many of them fake.
For Juul, counterfeit pods add another risk to the already embattled company. Parents and regulators might not distinguish whether minors are using real or fake Juul products. And it's unclear what exactly users are inhaling when they puff on fake pods. "The responsible companies … have taken their flavored products out of convenience stores, like Juul. So now what's filling the void are these counterfeit flavored products," he said in an interview on CNBC'sAdrian Punderson, Juul's vice president of intellectual property protection, said he cannot quantify the increase in counterfeit products Juul has seen since the company pulled flavored pods from stores.
Some raids have uncovered dirty factories and unsanitary working conditions, he said. For example, investigators found liquids stored on the floor and in dirty storage containers with workers using ketchup-type squirt bottles to inject the liquid into the pods. Employees also used visibly dirty cloths to wipe the excess fluid off the bottle, pods and their hands, Punderson said.