Hong Kong’s consumer watchdog has been urged to improve the accuracy of its findings, after a study on bottled water drew backlash from mainland Chinese companies. Lawmakers made the calls on Wednesday after the Consumer Council published a study earlier this week claiming two mainland bottled water brands contained dangerous substances at the maximum level of European Union quality standards. Lawmaker Doreen Kong Yuk-foon told a radio show that the council should use fact-based terms to present their tested products, instead of just listing them as “good” or “bad”.
“This incident showed that there is room for improvement on the way of public reporting which may especially impact the minority stakeholders of the affected companies,” Kong said. She said she hoped the council would handle the issue with care. Kong also added that the report had intensified public worries about food safety amid recent concerns over cooking oil on the mainland, where tanker trucks that transport fuel are reportedly used to carry cooking oil.
“The report of the Consumer Council widely circulated on mainland media, causing great concern among the public,” she said. Lawmaker Gary Zhang Xinyu also said in a social media post on Tuesday that the report was not rigorous enough. “The council applied an EU standard used for ‘natural mineral water’, yet the bottled water was categorised as ‘natural water’ [deep lake],” he said.
He added the council should clarify and provide .