link Red Bull banned after testing positive for cocaine May 25, 2009 FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS BERLIN — Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine. The bans started Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink. Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations. Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk. It planned to produce a more detailed report Wednesday. Red Bull said its cola is “harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe.” It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces. link Red Bull's cocaine problem spreads to Austria The Austrian health ministry confirmed that it has found trace levels of cocaine in test samples of Red Bull Cola energy drinks. Spokeswoman Sigrid Rosenberger said the findings hovered near the lowest detectable levels, and do not pose a health risk. Retailers in six German states have stopped selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after tests by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms of cocaine per liter in the drink. Meanwhile, Red Bull, of Santa Monica, Calif., maintains that the product in question, Red Bull Cola, is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." Red Bull notes that their products contain analogous coca leaf extracts as a flavoring agent in the making of its cola, but insists that the illegal cocaine alkaloid is removed by law before being shipped outside the Andean region of South America. Moreover, they claim that their own tests show no traces of actual cocaine. link Taiwan recalls Red Bull drink after discovering mild cocaine traces 2009-05-31 05:29 PM Department of Health ordered importer on May 30 to recall Red Bull Energy Drink imported from Austria after discovering trace amounts of cocaine in the product. Central News Agency The Cabinet-level Department of Health (DOH) ordered an importer Saturday to recall an energy drink imported from Austria after discovering trace amounts of cocaine in the product, and said people should not drink the beverage. According to a statement from the department, the DOH decided to test the imported Red Bull Energy Drink based on reports from Germany that a different cola drink made by the same manufacturer was found to contain 0.4 micrograms of cocaine per liter. The DOH results found that the energy drink it tested contains just 0.03 parts per billion of cocaine, the statement said. The DOH has told the relevant authorities to have the product removed from store shelves, the statement went on, noting that the law prohibits any traces whatsoever of banned drugs in food products. Meanwhile that day, the Investigation Bureau seized 17,165 cases of Red Bull Energy Drink from warehouses of the product's importer, the Taipei-based Nanlien International Corp. The manufacturer issued a press release claiming their innocence on Sunday. The corporation said that prosecutors are misguided and will file legal lawsuits to defend its reputation. The plan to start the sale of energy beverage in convenience stores beginning June 1 is forced to be suspended after the DOH call of product removal off shelves and seizure of its goods in stock. The bureau said in its statement that the value of the seized product is more than NT$25 million, with each can retailing at between NT$50 and NT$65. The energy drink is often sold as a mixer for vodka at clubs and bars, according to the bureau. A toxicology expert said that the mild traces of cocaine found in the drink will not cause harm to human body or lead to cocaine addiction. Death is only possible when a person drinks 700,000 liters of Red Bull at one time. According to the foreign media reports, the German authorities notified retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola after the cocaine traces were discovered. Coming from Austria, the Red Bull Energy Drink is on sale in 130 countries, with 3.5 billion cans sold worldwide in 2008.
