Mainland China drinks giant pours cold water on Hong Kong watchdog’s ‘irresponsible’ report

Nongfu Spring issues legal letter denying Consumer Council study that claimed bottled water contained potentially hazardous chemical at EU limit level

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Bottles of Nongfu Spring water sold at a Beijing supermarket in March this year. Photo: Simon Song

Published: 5:20pm, 16 Jul 2024Updated: 6:51pm, 16 Jul 2024

Mainland China’s biggest producer of bottled water has slammed an “extremely unscientific and irresponsible” report by Hong Kong’s Consumer Council and demanded an apology after the watchdog said the product was on the EU limit for a potentially dangerous chemical.

Nongfu Spring issued a legal letter on Tuesday that sought to rubbish a recent council report that found the company’s bottled water contained bromate at the maximum level of European Union quality standards.

The report said that excessive intake of the chemical could lead to discomfort or even affect consumers’ nervous systems.

The council warned that consuming large amounts of bromate could cause nausea, abdominal pain, vomiting and diarrhoea and affect the kidneys and nervous system in severe cases.

But Nongfu Spring rejected the findings of the report and said the council had applied incorrect standards to evaluate its product and misled the public through subjective misrepresentation.

The company, in the legal letter issued by a Hong Kong law firm, questioned the council’s decision to classify the bottled water as “natural water (deep lake water)”, but applied an EU standard applicable to “natural mineral water”.