Red Bull gets pulled from German shelves

The popular energy drink Red Bull has been pulled from shelves across Germany. The reason for the drink to be completely removed from six German states is that when the drink was tested, it was found to have a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans, which started Friday, were enacted after the trace amount of cocaine was found by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state. The amount found was 0.4 micrograms per liter of Red Bull.

While Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said that the level was too low to actually pose a health risk, it planned on giving a more detailed report on Wednesday.

Red Bull simply said that similar coca leaf extracts are used around the world as a flavoring and that it is harmless and marketable in both the United States and Europe. Red Bull also said when a similar test was conducted by its own firm, that no traces of the drug were found at all.

Red Bull is a favorite of mine. I have to say that perhaps I drink it a little too much and I might now know why. On a serious note, if your product has been found to have something like cocaine in it, no matter how trace the amount, you better do something quickly to rectify the situation because bad publicity can’t be fixed in many cases. Every time someone picks up a Red Bull they’ll think about cocaine, so that same customer may pick up a Rockstar energy drink instead. Just think about the rumor going around that once upon a time Coca-Cola actually contained cocaine. I still hear it every so often where someone will say “I won’t drink Coke because it has cocaine in it.” They are misinformed and while the rumor may have been true in Coke’s very early days, it is certainly not true anymore.

Red Bull needs to offer more of a statement than the drink is safe in the United States and Europe. I really am disgusted in the fact that they said it is “marketable” (those are Red Bull’s actual words. Of course something is marketable. Again, this is just one of those phrases or sayings that can turn against a company.

I suppose we’ll see the outcome of this story once Germany’s Federal Institute for Risk Assessment comes back with more results on Wednesday. I would even like to see the detailed report with both regular Red Bull and the Sugar Free variety on the block.