China's home appliance giant Midea will allow consumers to return a kind of electric cooker produced by the company, in response to a China Central Television (CCTV) broadcast on Monday that revealed the cookers were made of ordinary clay instead of the purple clay described in their advertisements, Nanfang Daily reported Tuesday.

An unidentified source with Midea said the cookers had no quality problems and posed no danger to people's health, but they were not made of real purple clay as promoted. The people in charge of the products' promotion have been suspended from work, he added.

Purple clay has been widely used in making cookers in recent years as it contains abundant microelements such as calcium, iron, zinc and selenium, which have proven beneficial to people's health. To attract consumers, many manufacturers label their products "natural purple clay" or "purple clay with rich iron."

However, according to CCTV's investigative report, the so-called purple clay container produced by Midea was made from ordinary clay with colorants.

The company said they sincerely extended their humblest apologies to consumers and the media and welcomed the media to supervise the development of their industry.