AQ Announcement

Recently, some media queried that our products were found to contain approximately 0.06% chlorhexidine. The company hereby makes a statement formally to explain and dispel any doubts.

AQ’s biotechnology formula contains ingredients such as botanical organic acids and peptide proteins. To ensure the quality of our products, we need to add an extremely small trace of enzymes, stabilizers and preservatives into the formula. Throughout the years, our manufacturing department has been using chlorhexidine as it is generally recognized as safe and stable, which makes the skimming of “impurities” during formulation easier to manipulate. This conforms to the technological requirements of bio-formula. The company’s “impurity” skimming standard is less than 0.1%, which complies with the products and drugs regulatory standard of all importing countries. In fact, the amount of impurities in our products is far below the requirements stipulated in Cap. 138 of the Pharmacy and Poisons Ordinance 1 over the past years.

In 2018, relevant authorities in Hong Kong discovered that low content chlorhexidine disinfectant (0.05%) was contaminated by bacteria. In other words, the proportion of chlorhexidine in these formulations might not be enough to offer the efficacy. Thus, the efficacy of AQ products could never come from such a minute amount of chlorhexidine in the formula. Germs and bacteria are constantly mutating. Conventional ways of sterilization and dosages may not be able to cope with the needs of today. Epidemic prevention and disinfection must keep up with the times. Preservatives such as chlorhexidine are dispensable ingredients in terms of the effectiveness of the entire AQ series. As such, AQ did not and does not need to use such a small amount (less than 0.1% of chlorhexidine) of the so-called non-natural ingredient to confuse and deceive consumers.

Because of the “wording and reporting method” used in the TV programme, many people misunderstood that chlorhexidine is a substance hazardous to the human body, or were led to misjudge that products containing chlorhexidine means non-natural. We would like to emphasize that since our products are made of all natural ingredients, preservatives and stabilizers are required to ensure that the quality of the raw materials can be preserved effectively before formulation. In other words, should the raw materials that we use are synthetic, preservatives are simply not necessary.

Furthermore, chlorhexidine is a general anti-bacterial and germicide widely used in dentistry and products such as mouthwash, and the result is considerably good. It is a safe, healthy, stable and effective preparation. For details, please refer to the document of the World Health Organization: “WHO Model List of Essential Medicines for Children” 2 and that of the Chlorhexidine Working Group: “ Chlorhexidine for Umbilical Cord Care” 3.

To comply with the requirement of the new Ordinance 138 and in line with AQ’s commitment to manufacturing non-medicinal bio-formula, AQ will not use and will completely abandon the use of chlorhexidine as a stabilizer and preservative for the new batch of raw materials. The all along highly efficient sterilizing power (99.99%) and chlorhexidine-free properties are certified by test centres4 accredited by the Hong Kong Government. The public are welcome to check out the safety and performance reports of AQ products. The new batch of AQ products are revamped with new packaging. The relevant lot numbers will be published on our official website for identification.

In case of queries, AQ customers can contact us by WhatsApp (Tel: 97450138) or email us at office@aq-bio.com.

We would like to once again thank all AQ users and partners for their support and trust in the last 12 years. In case of queries, AQ customers can contact us by WhatsApp (Tel: 97450138) or email us at office@aq-bio.com. AQ promises that the company will continue to pursue perfection and advance with times. We will work together with Hong Kong people to fight the virus and provide the city an easy way to healthy living!

AQ’s Board of Directors

1 July 2020

¹ https://www.elegislation.gov.hk/hk/cap138!zh-Hant-HK

² https://apps.who.int/iris/bitstream/handle/10665/273825/EMLc-6-eng.pdf?ua=1

³ https://www.healthynewbornnetwork.org/hnn-content/uploads/CHX-Technical-Brief_final-for-translation__2017-11-20_EN.pdf

⁴ https://www.cmatesting.org/zh_hk/home