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(Original title: Hong Kong Consumer Council apologizes for Nongfu Spring incident, product classification changed from "natural mineral water" to "drinking natural water")

On the morning of July 18, the Hong Kong Consumer Council (hereinafter referred to asConsumer Council) formallyNongfu SpringApologies.

The Consumer Council told the Daily Economic News reporter that the Consumer Council had previously classified the bottled water test report based on the product name and label information of the sample.farmerMountain SpringClassified as "naturalmineral waterAfter communicating with the company representative, the Consumer Council learned that the relevant product should be "drinkingNatural water". Therefore, the Consumer Council listed this sample as a separate category of "drinking natural water" and re-rated the product from 4.5 stars to 5 stars.

The Consumer Council stated that for products from different origins, local quality inspection standards are generally used as indicators. This is a comparative test, and usually international standards are used for testing and evaluation. Therefore, the bromate content test of Nongfu Spring, which is classified as "natural mineral water", adopts the maximum limit of bromate in natural mineral water and spring water treated with ozone set by the European Union, which is 3 micrograms per liter.

According to the Food Safety Centre of the Food and Environmental Hygiene Department of the SAR Government, consuming large amounts of bromate can cause nausea, diarrhoea, vomiting and abdominal pain. In severe cases, the kidneys and nervous system may also be affected. The World Health Organization has set the upper limit of bromate content in drinking water at 10 micrograms per litre. If this limit is not exceeded, it is unlikely to pose a threat to health.

The Consumer Council reiterated that the chemical safety and microbiological test results of the samples tested this time were ideal, and no harmful substances were found to exceed the relevant guideline values. All samples (including the Nongfu Spring sample) are safe to drink. The Consumer Council apologized for the misunderstanding caused by the discrepancy in the classification of samples in this test.

On July 18, Nongfu Spring also responded on its WeChat official account, saying that it had received the above clarification and that the test results fully showed that Nongfu Spring products fully met the relevant standards and were safe to drink. Nongfu Spring will continue to provide safe, high-quality products and services to the Hong Kong market.

On July 15, the Consumer Council released an evaluation of 30 bottled waters on the market. In the test of "disinfectant residues and by-products", the Consumer Council pointed out that Nongfu Spring was found to contain 3 micrograms of bromate per liter, which reached the maximum limit of the relevant EU standards.

On July 16, Nongfu Spring issued a statement pointing out three major errors made by the Consumer Council: First, the applicable standard category was wrong, and the company's "drinking natural water" products were placed in the "natural mineral water" category for comparison; second, the standard was wrongly determined, and the company's drinking water was sold in mainland China and Hong Kong, China, but the Consumer Council adopted third-party standards; third, the evaluation language was unprofessional and deliberately misleading. The evaluation standard was only "qualified" or "unqualified", and the use of "upper limit" or "lower limit" was obviously intentional and misleading. Nongfu Spring said that those who experienced gastrointestinal symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and abdominal pain were exposed to bromate levels thousands of times higher than the bromate in the tested drinking water products.