Red bull gives you wiiings because...

...a test found a trace amount of cocaine! No kidding? And to think I've been consuming red bull (especially because the advertisements on Red Bull are darn cute: check out the 3 Red Bull ads featuring Leonardo da Vinci, Genie, and Frog Prince!)

But now with the latest news--I wonder how Agri-Food & Verinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) shall react to that--I find myself liking more to this simple YouTube ad on Red Bull. The title is "Red Bull Gives You Wings????" by a YouTuber, kalyan3. Heh, simply straight-to-the-point cute!

Anyway, on checking in the Net for more news about (allegedly) the secret, undeclared ingredient of cocaine inside Red Bull, I came across this article published on 23/05/09, "Red Bull Cola energy drink banned for containing cocaine". It's from Deutsche Welle which is a Germany’s international broadcaster.

The article basically says a few things. Although the coke is not harmful, it violates food law. A spokesman for Red Bull, Frank Farnsteiner was quoted to tell German public radio: "We are of the opinion that our product is marketable." Well, drugs--both legal & illegal--always are.

Six German states have told retailers to stop selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after a test found a trace amount of cocaine.

The bans started on Friday after a sample test conducted by authorities in North Rhine-Westphalia state found 0.4 micrograms per liter in the drink.

Five other states also banned it from shops amid concerns over possible narcotics law violations.

Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment said on Monday that the cocaine level was too low to pose a health risk.

It planned to produce a more detailed report on Wednesday.

Red Bull said its cola is 'harmless and marketable in both the US and Europe.'

It said similar coca leaf extracts are used worldwide as flavoring, and a test it commissioned itself found no cocaine traces.

From Straits Times, "Cocaine found in Red Bull".

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Update on 03/06: Taiwan & Hong Kong has joined Germany to decry Red Bull for having traces of cocaine. Singapore, when will your turn be?

Hong Kong officials say they have found traces of cocaine in cans of Red Bull, a few days after Taiwanese authorities confiscated close to 18,000 cases of the popular energy drink.

Officials at the Centre for Food Safety said a laboratory analysis found tiny amounts of the illegal drug in samples of "Red Bull Cola," "Red Bull Sugar-free" and "Red Bull Energy Drink", a spokesman said.

The drink has now been taken off the shelves of major supermarkets, the spokesman said in a statement issued late Monday. He added that the amount of cocaine found in the drinks posed little health danger.

Red Bull moved quickly to deny the findings and said independent tests on the same batch of drinks had found no traces of cocaine.

The Centre for Food Safety found traces of cocaine between 0.1 and 0.3 micrograms of the illegal drug per litre, the statement said.

Hong Kong's commissioner for narcotics, Sally Wong, said the government was now taking legal advice on any possible liability for importers and retailers.

"Cocaine is a dangerous drug... The possession and dealing in the drug is a criminal offence," she said in the statement.

Red Bull's Asia Pacific marketing director, Daniel Beatty, said the firm strongly disputed the findings.

"It would have been absolutely impossible for the Hong Kong or any other authorities to have found traces of cocaine in Red Bull Energy Drink," he said in a statement.

"We expect the Hong Kong authorities to recognize their error soon," he said, adding the firm's representatives were already meeting with Taiwanese authorities to point out the error.

Taiwan officials said Saturday they had confiscated nearly 18,000 cases of Red Bull imported from Austria after finding it contained traces of the drug.

Taiwanese authorities ordered the drinks to be removed from shelves pending further investigation.

Red Bull, whose advertising slogan is "Red Bull gives you wings," was founded by Austrian toothpaste salesman Dietrich Mateschitz in the 1980s.

It has since become one of the dominant players in the global energy drinks market.

From Yahoo! News, "Traces of cocaine 'found in Red Bull' in Hong Kong".

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Update on 05/06: it's now official -- Red Bull gives you wings...not in Singapore, though. No cocaine traces are found possibly because the energy drinks are imported from Thailand, Vietnam, Austria & Malaysia.

The Red Bull energy drinks sold here are safe for consumption. The drinks are imported from Thailand, Vietnam, Austria and Malaysia.

A statement from the Agri-food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore said tests conducted by the Health Sciences Authority laboratories for Food Safety and Illicit Drugs & Analytical Toxicology did not detect any cocaine in all samples tested.

AVA was earlier alerted to the detection of traces of cocaine in the Red Bull imported from Austria.

From Channel NewsAsia, "Red Bull drinks sold in Singapore safe for consumption".