Hema's 'antibiotic-free' eggs carried a banned drug — premium brand's quality black box

In February 2025, a Shanghai consumer chewing through shepherd's-purse-and-pork wontons from a Hema X member store found a whole cockroach inside; the maker was Wuxi Shangqinghe Food. Shanghai regulators filed a case and sent an assistance-investigation letter to the manufacturer, with Wuxi authorities joining in. Hema sent staff to offer a refund, was called perfunctory for trying to push responsibility onto the manufacturer, and still answered 'negotiation in progress' after regulators had stepped in. The consumer's demands for ten-times compensation and damages remained unresolved.

In May 2025 the regulatory notices stacked up. Shandong's 'you point, we inspect' sampling found that 'antibiotic-free' eggs sold by Hema contained dimetridazole — a banned veterinary drug — at 55% over the limit and trimethoprim at 30% over; the supplier claimed its own retests passed, while Hema had missed filing its re-inspection application. In Nanjing, Hema's ready-to-eat kiwifruit was found 70% over the limit for the swelling agent forchlorfenuron. The products that failed were the ones carrying premium labels — 'antibiotic-free', 'premium', 'ready-to-eat'.

The pattern put a premiumization push ahead of the quality system. Hema's answers stuck to 'verifying with the supplier' and 'handling customer complaints', with no traceability results disclosed — the same reflex as 2024, when its X member stores were repeatedly exposed selling counterfeit name-brand cosmetics and Hema offered refunds but refused triple compensation. Analysts put it bluntly: the 30-minute delivery efficiency myth had collided with a quality black box. A brand that sells trust as the product cannot outsource the proof of it to supplier reports.