Hong Kong’s two largest supermarket chains pulled Red Bull GmbH drinks from their shelves

Hong Kong's two largest supermarket chains pulled Red Bull GmbH drinks from their shelves after the government said samples were found to contain traces of cocaine. The Austrian company said its products are free of the drug.

ParknShop and Wellcome said they removed the drinks yesterday after the Department of Health and Centre for Food Safety reported finding "extremely low" levels of cocaine in Red Bull Cola, Red Bull Sugar-Free and Red Bull Energy Drink imported from Austria and the UK.

"It would have been absolutely impossible for the Hong Kong or any other authorities to have found traces of cocaine in Red Bull Energy Drink," Daniel Beatty, Red Bull's Hong Kong-based marketing director for Asia-Pacific, said in an e-mail today. "We expect the Hong Kong authorities to recognize their error soon."

The Hong Kong tests follow the seizure in Taiwan of 17,165 cases of Red Bull Energy Drink by authorities on May 30. Germany raised concerns last month about the use of de-cocainized coca leaf in another of the company's drinks not sold in Asia. source>>>

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