Author - Brother who understands wine
The people take food as the sky, and food is the first thing.
In the past few days, the matter of "Harbin beer was detected with vomitoxin" has become the focus of public opinion. The response that "the product is only produced and sold in the mainland" also made Harbin Beer fall into the question of "double standard". What are the facts?
McDonnell Douglas in Harbin was found to have vomitoxin
Recently, the Consumer Council of Hong Kong (hereinafter referred to as the "Hong Kong Consumer Council") purchased 30 samples of prepackaged canned or canned beers from supermarkets, department stores and retail outlets, including Tsingtao Beer, Harbin Beer, Snow Beer, Carlsberg, Kirin Beer, Blue Ice and other brands, to test their nutritional value, safety and quality.
According to the test report, 30 beer samples were found to contain biogenic amines of different types and levels, of which 2 samples were found to contain relatively high levels of biogenic amines, and it is worth noting that 1 sample was found to contain "deoxynivalenol (DON)", with a detection level of 26 micrograms per kilogram, and this sample was "Harbin HARBIN McDonnell Douglas Beer".
According to the article by the Hong Kong Consumer Council, referring to the recommendations of the Joint FAO/WHO Expert Committee on Food Additives on DON, if an adult weighing 60 kg is calculated, drinking 4 cans of DON in a day (Harbin) is still within the safe level.
However, the Hong Kong Consumer Council also reminded consumers in the article that the intake level is designed to protect public health, especially in cases where long-term or large intake of DON may have adverse health effects. The article also points out that barley, the main ingredient of beer, can be contaminated by mold if it is not stored properly, and the toxins produced by these molds may remain in the beer production process.
According to the article, the most concerning issue for DON is safety, which may cause symptoms such as nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, abdominal pain, and even fever within 30 minutes of ingestion, similar to those of other gastrointestinal diseases, and are not easy to distinguish. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies certain Fusarium-derived toxins (including DON) as Group 3 substances, i.e. they are not known to be carcinogenic to humans.
According to the WeChat official account of the Shenzhen Customs Food Inspection and Quarantine Technology Center in the Shenzhen Branch of the China Electronic Port Data Center in July 2023, DON is a common mycotoxin, which mostly grows slowly in grain crops during low temperature, humidity and harvesting seasons, generally in higher concentrations in barley, wheat, corn, and oats, and lower concentrations in rye, sorghum, and rice. For the human body, when a person ingests food contaminated with vomitoxin, it can cause acute poisoning symptoms such as anorexia, vomiting, diarrhea, fever, unsteadiness on standing, and unresponsiveness, and in severe cases, damage to the hematopoietic system and cause death.
In fact, there are no regulations on the DON content in beer in Hong Kong or internationally. At present, Chinese mainland has not set a specific standard for the DON content in beer, and only sets a safety limit on the raw materials that may be used in brewing beer, such as barley and wheat. According to Chinese mainland's GB2761-2017 standard, the safety limit for cereals and their products (including barley, wheat, cereal and wheat flour) is set at 1,000 micrograms per kilogram. At the same time, the standard also clearly stipulates that food producers and processors must take effective control measures to reduce the amount of mycotoxins in food as much as possible, regardless of whether a limit has been set for mycotoxins.
With the continuous fermentation of public opinion, Budweiser responded to a number of media that the company has always put consumer safety first and strictly controlled product quality. The test report of the Hong Kong Consumer Council pointed out that the Harbin Beer Wheat Trail sample contained deoxynivalenol (DON), which was detected at a level (26 μg/kg, i.e. 0.026 ppm) far below the Chinese National Standard (cereals and their products) (1000 μg/kg, i.e. 1 ppm), and far below the relevant upper limit of 1000 μp/kg by an international food safety authority.
At the same time, the Harbin McDonnell Douglas brewery also pointed out that the product is only sold in the mainland and is not exported to Hong Kong. The company strictly abides by the laws and regulations of the markets in which it operates, and all products are rigorously tested before being marketed. But as soon as this remark came out, Harbin Beer fell into the whirlpool of public opinion of "double standard".
According to public information, Harbin beer originated in 1900 and has a history of more than 120 years, making it the earliest beer in China. In 2002, Harbin Beer was successfully listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange and won the title of "Best Listed Company" in that year. In 2004, Budweiser's parent company, Anheuser-Busch, reached a takeover agreement with Harbin Beer, and more than 99% of the shares of Harbin Beer were purchased by Budweiser for HK$5.5 billion. At present, Harbin Beer is now a beer brand under Budweiser China, which 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 APAC (1876.HK). HK）。
In recent years, Budweiser's business has not been easy. A few days ago, Budweiser APAC, a listed entity in Budweiser Asia Pacific, including the Chinese market, released its 2023 annual report disclosing that the company's revenue last year was US$6.856 billion, an increase of 11.1% year-on-year, but the profit attributable to equity holders (net profit attributable to the parent company) recorded US$852 million, a year-on-year decrease of 6.68%. In the fourth quarter of last year, Budweiser APAC's sales in the western part of the Asia Pacific region, China, the eastern part of the Asia Pacific region and South Korea fell by 1.9%, 3.1%, 3.4% and mid-single digits, respectively, and the sales volume in several important markets declined. Under the influence of this incident, Budweiser APAC's sales situation may be worse in the future.
Food safety is as important as Mount Tai
Food safety is more important than the sky, and last year's Tsingtao Beer "pee incident" is still in the ears. In October 2023, some netizens posted a video saying that a worker climbed into the raw material warehouse to urinate in the third factory of Qingdao Brewery in Shandong. Although it is difficult to identify the specific location and location in the video, it has attracted a lot of attention from netizens because it involves a raw material warehouse. Although the official investigation revealed that the worker was administratively detained, consumers were still worried about the quality and safety of the well-established brewery.
On March 27, Tsingtao Brewery released its 2023 annual performance report. According to the annual report, in 2023, the company's main revenue will be 33.937 billion yuan, an increase of 5.49% year-on-year, the net profit attributable to the parent company will be 4.268 billion yuan, an increase of 15.02% year-on-year, and the non-net profit will be 3.721 billion yuan, an increase of 15.94% year-on-year.
Despite the good performance, due to the impact of the "pee incident", Tsingtao Brewery's single-quarter main revenue in the fourth quarter was 2.958 billion yuan, down 3.37% year-on-year, net profit attributable to the parent company was -640 million yuan, down 15.01% year-on-year, and non-net profit was -876 million yuan, down 34.53% year-on-year. In addition, Tsingtao Beer has also increased its investment in product promotion due to this public opinion incident, and its sales expenses are high, and its profitability has been suppressed.
In terms of gross profit margin, in the fourth quarter of 2023, the gross profit margin of Tsingtao Beer was 27.47%, up 2.22 percentage points year-on-year and down 13.46 percentage points quarter-on-quarter, and the net profit margin was -21.99%, down 3.66 percentage points from the same period last year and down 38.16 percentage points from the previous quarter.
In terms of sales volume, Tsingtao Beer also fell 10% year-on-year to 720,000 kiloliters in the fourth quarter of 2023, and in terms of products, the sales volume of the main brand in the fourth quarter of the year fell by 4%, of which the sales of mid-to-high-end products and above increased by 6%, the sales of other main brands fell by 22%, and the sales of other brands such as Laoshan fell by 20%.
Due to the vicious nature of the "pee incident", Tsingtao Beer's brand image and reputation have been greatly reduced, and it may take longer for the negative impact to be eliminated.
Judging from the current situation, although the incident of "Harbin beer was detected with vomitoxin", although it does not prove that Harbin beer has safety problems, nor is it as bad as the "urine incident", it is enough to sound the alarm for the industry, and "safety" is always the most concerned issue for consumers.
Before the press release, the truth of liquor was inquired on Taobao, Jingdong, Pinduoduo and other e-commerce platforms and found that at present, Harbin Beer and Budweiser Beer have no Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer sales in the official flagship stores of various platforms, and only some third-party stores are still selling this product.