Taking the Bull by the horns
At the end of May, German retailers were ordered to stop selling the beverage. An investigation in Germany had found traces of de-cocainised extract of coca leaf in Red Bull Cola.
Authorities said the cocaine levels do not pose a health threat but are not permitted in foodstuffs.
The Austrian company is now seeking a pan-European solution to their problem.
A ban would smash the hopes harboured by Red Bull’s owner Dietrich Mateschitz, 65, to sell one billion cans of Red Bull Cola in three to four years.
In 2008, Red Bull had a turn over of EUR 3.1 billion on sales of 3.5 billion cans of Red Bull in 146 countries. The company’s marketing budget usually ranges between 30 and 40 percent of turnover.
Meanwhile in Taiwan the Red Bull saga continued as local authorities confiscated nearly 18,000 cases of Red Bull imported from Austria after slight traces of cocaine were detected in the drink.
The cases of Red Bull (which is not to be confused with Red Bull Cola), worth around USD 770,000, were removed from the local importer’s warehouses, Taiwan media reported. The shipment had arrived on the island from Austria in April.
In China, the Beijing-based producer of Red Bull issued a statement on 1 June assuring that the product was "safe for consumption" on the Chinese mainland.
Yet, in Hong Kong, the two largest supermarket chains, ParknShop and Wellcome, on 2 June pulled Red Bull’s drinks from their shelves after the city’s 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.
