Recently, the Hong Kong Consumer Council conducted a test on 30 beer samples, and the test results have aroused market concern.
The results showed that the alcohol content of the Harbin McDonnell Douglas sample was 0.97% higher than the label. At the same time, samples of Harbin McDonnell Douglas were also found to contain vomitoxin.
In response, the Harbin brewery pointed out that it had never imported and sold the tested product to Hong Kong, and that the product had only been produced and sold in the mainland, and the entire production and sales process complied with the relevant laws and regulations of the mainland.
On April 19, the reporter of "Consumer Reports" asked the official flagship stores of Harbin Beer and Budweiser Beer on Tmall, and the customer service responded that there was no Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer.
A search for "Harbin McDonnell Douglas" showed that the product was sold in some third-party stores on the e-commerce platform. According to the product detail page of a store, the price of the 580ml 6 bottles of the product is 39.9 yuan, and the manufacturer is Budweiser Harbin Beer Co., Ltd. The store's customer service said that the products that are now photographed and shipped will be produced in February 2024.
It is understood that Harbin Beer is now a beer brand of Budweiser China, Budweiser China used to be known as "Budweiser InBev Investment (China) Co., Ltd.", and its related subsidiaries were spun off and listed in Hong Kong, namely Budweiser Asia Pacific (1876. HK）。
In response to the reasons for the results of the test report, the market controversy caused by it, and the company's operating conditions, Consumer Reports sent an interview letter to Budweiser APAC on April 19, but did not receive a response to the relevant questions as of press time.
Budweiser Ha beer has been found to contain mycotoxins
The test items cover nutritional value, safety and quality. In terms of safety testing, 1 model of Harbin McDonnell Douglas was found to contain deoxynivalenol (DON) at a level of 26 μg/kg, while the remaining 29 samples were not found to contain mycotoxins.
Screenshot of the relevant test report on the website of the Hong Kong Consumer Council
According to the Hong Kong Consumer Council, deoxynivalenol (DON), also known as vomitoxin, may cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and fever within 30 minutes after excessive ingestion, which is similar to the symptoms of other gastrointestinal diseases and is not easy to distinguish.
A person in the food industry told the "Consumer Reports" reporter that this situation is generally related to the grain raw materials used in brewing beer, and the fungus contaminates the grain to produce toxins, which enter the beer during the brewing process.
The reporter inquired about the information and saw that deoxynivalenol (DON) is one of the common mycotoxins with the greatest probability of being present in barley, malt and beer, and is not uncommon in cereals and cereal products in the production process.
In a research report published by the Ningbo Center for Disease Control in 2023, researchers collected a total of 80 wheat flour, 23 rice, 31 corn, 15 beer, and 13 liquor through online shopping and supermarkets, and analyzed and determined DON and its derivatives according to the test method. The results showed that DON was detected in wheat flour, rice, corn and beer, mainly in wheat flour, rice, corn and other cereal raw materials. Of these, 13 of the 15 beers were found to contain DON.
Source: Determination of Deoxynivalenol and its Derivatives in Cereals and Products by Improved Pass-through Solid Phase Extraction Column-Ultra-Performance Liquid Chromatography-Tandem Mass Spectrometry
In fact, the Hong Kong Consumer Council also pointed out the results of the test that the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives recommended that the daily intake of DON is 1 microgram per kilogram of body weight, and long-term exposure below this level will not pose a health risk to most people. This also means that a 60kg adult who consumes 4 cans of Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer in one day is still within the safe level.
At present, for the ingredient deoxynivalenol, the relevant domestic standards only control the limit in grain raw materials, and do not make relevant regulations for beer.
According to the National Food Safety Standard Food Mycotoxin Limit (GB2761-2017), the allowable limit of DON in corn, cornmeal (residue, flakes), barley, wheat, cereal, and wheat flour ≤ 1000μg/kg.
Although there is no limit for DON in beer, the standard in the application principles section suggests that food producers and processors should take control measures to keep mycotoxin levels in food to a minimum, regardless of whether a limit for mycotoxins is established.
In fact, the detection of vomitoxin in Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer is only one of the harmful components detected in the test results. In this test, all 30 beers were found to contain biogenic amines of different types and concentrations. Among them, Carlsberg beer samples were the most detected, with a total of 7 biogenic amines, and Coopers beer samples were the second most detected, with 5 biogenic amines.
He has been administratively punished for violating the Advertising Law on several occasions
According to public information, the producer of Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer is Budweiser Harbin Beer Co., Ltd. Harbin Beer is now a beer brand under Budweiser China, which was formerly known as "Budweiser InBev Investment (China) Co., Ltd.", and its related subsidiary was spun off and listed in Hong Kong as Budweiser Asia Pacific Holdings Limited.
In addition to the controversy over the quality inspection of its products, Budweiser APAC also needs to pay attention to the scale of its own advertising.
During the inquiry, the reporter noticed that in recent years, Budweiser China has repeatedly "stepped on thunder" in advertising. According to public information from Qichacha, since August 2020, Budweiser China has been fined more than 1.6 million yuan by the Market Supervision and Administration Bureau for violating the Advertising Law.
In August 2020, the act of publishing an advertisement with "drinking action" on the WeChat official account of "Budweiser China" violated Article 23(2) of the Advertising Law of the People's Republic of China, which states that "alcohol advertisements shall not contain the following content...... (2) Acts of drinking, ......", constituting the act of publishing alcohol advertisements with drinking actions, was ordered by the Shanghai Huangpu District Administration for Market Regulation to stop publishing illegal advertisements, eliminate the impact within the corresponding scope, and fined 180,000 yuan.
Similar cases have been punished repeatedly. In May 2021, November 2021, and August 2022, Budweiser China was fined by the market regulatory authorities for constituting an illegal act of publishing advertisements that showed the act of drinking.
In addition to this, Budweiser has also been fined for publishing false advertisements. In 2021, Budweiser (China) Sales Co., Ltd. Shanghai Branch advertised on its website that "Budweiser always selects the best quality all-natural raw materials regardless of the cost", but the water and yeast in the beer it operated were manually intervened or treated, which was inconsistent with the advertised "all-natural raw materials", constituting a false advertisement that deceived and misled consumers with false product ingredients, and was fined RMB 200,000.
Budweiser APAC will "increase revenue but not profit" in 2023
With the iteration of consumer groups and the change of consumption trends, it has become more and more difficult for low-cost beer with a light sense to meet consumers' requirements for product quality, and the beer industry has become a major trend in the industry in recent years to develop high-end products.
Although Budweiser APAC has taken the lead in high-end layout, it does not mean that it can sit back and relax in the long-term development.
In the past year, Budweiser's performance has fallen into the dilemma of "increasing revenue but not increasing profits". According to Budweiser APAC's latest 2023 financial report, Budweiser APAC achieved operating income of US$6.856 billion, or about RMB 48.709 billion, a year-on-year increase of 11.1%, normalized EBIT of US$1.369 billion, a year-on-year increase of 15.2%, and beer sales reached 9.2767 billion liters.
However, from the perspective of net profit indicators, the profit attributable to Budweiser APAC equity holders in 2023 will be US$850 million, a year-on-year decrease of US$61 million.
On a quarterly basis, Budweiser APAC's sales volume in several key markets in the fourth quarter of 2023 was affected. In the western part of the Asia-Pacific region, China, and the eastern part of the Asia-Pacific region, Budweiser APAC's sales fell by 1.9%, 3.1%, and 3.4%, respectively.
At the same time, a number of domestic beer companies are sharpening their knives to hit the high-end. In the past year, five domestic beer giants have achieved revenue and profit growth. Among them, China Resources Beer will achieve an operating income of 38.93 billion yuan in 2023, the largest revenue growth rate among the five leading beer enterprises in China, with a year-on-year increase of 10.4%, and a net profit of 5.153 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 18.6%.
From the perspective of profit margin performance, the net profit margin of China Resources Beer and Chongqing Beer has also surpassed that of Budweiser APAC. In 2023, Budweiser APAC will have a net profit margin of 12.84%, while China Resources Beer and Chongqing Beer will have net profit margins of 13.39% and 18.3%, respectively.
The tug-of-war for the high-end beer industry is raging, and even if it is as strong as Budweiser APAC, it needs to constantly examine itself to cope with the market pattern that may be attacked and changed in the future.