In his letter, the lawyer claimed that the CC’s test report contained three major errors, including errors in the application of standards, errors in the appreciation of standards and an obvious subjective error. The letter also claimed that after the CC’s report was published, it had caused panic among consumers in Hong Kong and mainland China, resulting in huge losses for NONGFU SPRING.
The CC conducted tests on 30 bottled water products previously. During tests on disinfectant residues and by-products, bromate levels in Ganten and NONGFU SPRING bottled water products were found to have reached the maximum limit set by the EU for ozonated natural mineral water and spring water. The CC noted that a large intake of bromate could cause nausea.
NONGFU SPRING argued that even if the EU regional standard were adopted for its natural drinking water products, the EU safety standard for “drinking water” should be applied instead of the standard for “natural mineral water”. According to the EU safety standard for drinking water, the safe level of bromate should not be higher than 10 micrograms per litre, while NONGFU SPRING’s natural water products reached 3 micrograms per litre.
NONGFU SPRING commented that as a product manufactured and sold in the mainland China and Hong Kong markets, regulations in the respective regions should take priority over applicable standards. By forcibly applying a third-party (EU) standard that should not apply to products sold in mainland China and Hong Kong, CC ignored the differences in production and technical background under different regulatory requirements, failed to consider the effect of ozone processing, and came to a conclusion that was extremely unscientific and unscrupulous.
NONGFU SPRING also criticized the CC for using the words “upper limit” or “lower limit”, claiming that their use is a clear and deliberate error and is intentionally misleading. The company believed that all standards should only be expressed with “pass” or “fail”.
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