Retailers in six German states have stopped selling Red Bull Cola energy drinks after tests showed samples contained trace amounts of cocaine.

The ban began on Friday after results of sample testing by North Rhine-Westphalia state officials found samples to contain 0.4 micrograms of cocaine per liter. The findings caused officials in five other states to follow suit and ban sales over fears of possible violations of German narcotics law.

The cocaine levels are not high enough to constitute a health threat, said officials with Germany's Federal Institute for Risk Assessment on Monday. They plan to issue a complete report Wednesday.

Meanwhile, Red Bull, of Santa Monica, Calif., maintains that the product in question, Red Bull Cola, is "harmless and marketable in both the U.S. and Europe." Red Bull's notes that their products contain analogous coca leaf extracts as a flavoring agent in the making of its cola, but insists that the illegal cocaine alkaloid is removed by law before being shipped outside the Andean region of South America. They claim that their own tests show no traces of actual cocaine.

www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/25/red-bull-banned-germany-cocaine-test