In early April this year, a set of data released by the Hong Kong Consumer Council made "Harbin Beer" on the hot search.
According to the test results of the committee, Harbin beer contains DON, but the response of the manufacturer is shocking.
"Harbin Beer has only been produced and sold in the mainland and has not been exported to Hong Kong. ”
From a long-standing brand to a smelly "poisonous beer", how did Harbin beer come to this?
The source of this article comes from official media (surging network "Harbin Beer Detected with Vomitoxin, What's Wrong?", MSN Headlines "Harbin McDonnell Douglas Beer Was Detected with "Vomitoxin", Many E-commerce Platforms Have Been Removed from the Shelves", MSN Xiaoxiang Morning News "Harbin Beer Was Detected with Vomitoxin in Hong Kong, Saying It Was Only Sold in the Mainland, Causing Controversy, and Multiple Responses", Sina Finance "Harbin Beer Encounters "Vomitoxin" Turmoil, How Can the Brand Reverse the Situation and Regain Consumer Trust" However, in order to improve the readability of the article, there may be polishing of the details, please read sensibly, for reference only!
The excessive toxin shocked the whole network
On April 19, 2024, Hong Kong's Choice magazine published a beer test led by the Hong Kong Consumer Council. The test subjects covered 30 kinds of beers such as China Resources Snowflake, Tsingtao Beer, Heineken, Budweiser, etc., and Harbin McDonnell Douglas was also among them.
The main purpose of this test is to confirm whether there are brands that violate industry standards, and most brands have successfully met the standards. But when Harbin McDonnell Douglas was detected, the results given by the committee shocked the public.
Harbin McDonnell Douglas beer was detected with DON, and the amount was 26 micrograms per kilogram! DON is also known as vomitoxin, which can harm people's lives in the beer that people often drink, netizens are not calm in an instant, and they have crusaded against the manufacturers.
Harbin Beer's public relations was done quickly, and it responded that night, but there was no attitude of admitting mistakes. Not only did they insist that Harbin beer was only sold on the mainland, but they also said that "the level of vomitoxin was far below the standard" and that it had absolutely not harmed Hong Kong.
Harbin breweries are engaged in "differential treatment" between the mainland and Hong Kong, selling all poisoned beer to the mainland, and purely using mainlanders as guinea pigs. The prevarication behavior of the manufacturer is resentful, and the DON is so harmful, doesn't it hurt their conscience to do so?
DON is a mycotoxin found in low temperatures and humid environments, usually found in high levels in wheat, barley, corn and oats. When harvesting cereal crops, DON is produced if it is attacked by Fusarium.
Netizen comments
When the human body ingests DON, acute poisoning symptoms such as anorexia and vomiting, diarrhea, fever, and unresponsiveness will occur in a short period of time, and excessive intake will cause death. The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) lists it as a Group 3 substance, which shows how toxic it is.
Since the grain crop itself contains DON, it is not surprising that it will also be found in beer. However, the DON content of Harbin beer is 26 times higher than the standard, and the manufacturer does not respond positively, even if it accuses the committee of testing errors, is this not clear that it is throwing the pot?
Overnight, Harbin Beer, the once affordable beer giant, became the target of public criticism, and the manufacturer's reply made people shout "Hurry up and seize it". For Harbin Beer, the "leader" of the beer industry, people have been completely disappointed......
A century-old brand How to get here
Harbin beer originated in 1900, when a Russian businessman named Urublevsky built a brewery in Harbin, which was also the first beer enterprise in the mainland. In 1945, the brewery was taken over by the Soviet Union, but was eventually successfully reclaimed by the mainland.
After becoming a state-owned enterprise, the annual output of the Harbin brewery increased year by year, reaching 20,244 tons in 1975. With the spring breeze of reform and opening up blowing all over the country, Harbin Brewery has gradually become the "living signboard" of Harbin, and its development has entered a golden period.
In the eighties and nineties of the last century, the annual output of Harbin beer exceeded 55,000 tons, and in 1995, it ranked first in Northeast China with an annual output of more than 150,000 tons. Its name covers 50 kinds of high, medium and low-grade beers, and its popularity is comparable to that of big brands such as Yanjing and Qingdao.
In 1996, Harbin Brewery ushered in the transformation and established a joint venture with Hong Kong New China Hong Kong Group "Harbin Beer Co., Ltd." Six years later, Harbin Beer was listed in Hong Kong and was once regarded as a giant in the domestic beer industry due to its high sales in short supply.
However, with the acquisition of Harbin Beer by Budweiser for HK$5.5 billion in 2004, the old beer brand has lost its popularity. Harbin Beer's beer market share in China is getting smaller and smaller, and this poisoned beer incident has pushed it downhill.
But in fact, the farce of the "poisoned beer incident" is not limited to this time. In 2021, when promoting a new hawthorn-flavored product, Harbin Beer aroused questions from many female netizens because of its promotional posters.
Although Harbin Beer has the name of "Harbin", it is essentially a foreign-funded enterprise and has nothing to do with China. Since it wants to open up the market in China, Harbin Beer should not make poisonous beer, let alone make the mistake of "knowing but not changing".
Food safety has always been the top priority in the mainland, which is not only related to the safety of people's lives, but also to the good image of the brand. If Harbin Beer wants to regain trust, the first thing is to learn to face the problem head-on, instead of repeatedly evading responsibility.
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Resources
[1] The Paper, "Harbin Beer Detected with Vomitoxin, What's Wrong?", https://www.thepaper.cn/newsDetail_forward_27089952
[2] MSN headline "Harbin McDonnell Douglas Beer was detected with "vomitoxin", and many e-commerce platforms have been removed from the shelves; https://www.msn.cn/zh-cn/news/other/%E5%93%88%E5%B0%94%E6%BB%A8%E9%BA%A6%E9%81%93%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92%E8%A2%AB%E6%A3%80%E5%87%BA-%E5%91%95%E5%90%90%E6%AF%92%E7%B4%A0-%E5%A4%9A%E5%AE%B6%E7%94%B5%E5%95%86%E5%B9%B3%E5%8F%B0%E5%B7%B2%E4%B8%8B%E6%9E%B6/ar-AA1np3ip
[3] MSN Xiaoxiang Morning News "Harbin Beer Was Detected with Vomitoxin in Hong Kong, Saying It Was Only Sold in the Mainland, Causing Controversy, and Many Parties Responded"; https://www.msn.cn/zh-cn/news/other/%E5%93%88%E5%B0%94%E6%BB%A8%E5%95%A4%E9%85%92%E5%9C%A8%E9%A6%99%E6%B8%AF%E8%A2%AB%E6%A3%80%E5%87%BA%E5%91%95%E5%90%90%E6%AF%92%E7%B4%A0-%E7%A7%B0%E4%BB%85%E5%9C%A8%E5%86%85%E5%9C%B0%E9%94%80%E5%94%AE%E5%BC%95%E4%BA%89%E8%AE%AE-%E5%A4%9A%E6%96%B9%E5%9B%9E%E5%BA%94/ar-AA1nq7KA
[4] Sina Finance "Harbin Beer Encounters "Vomitoxin" Turmoil, How the Brand Turns the Situation Around, Regains Consumer Trust" https://finance.sina.com.cn/chanjing/jync/zxxx/2024-04-23/doc-inasvfmy9555012.shtml