It was reported on by the Associated Press on March 5, 2013 that nearly two tons of chocolate cake imported from Ikea had to be destroyed according to Chinese authorities because of food safety violation.
Chinese inspectors have stepped up their quality control in food safety after recent years, and a series of scandals of fake and questionable goods.
Shanghai quarantine bureau said this week they had to destroy over 2.5 tons of Nestle chocolate bars, Kraft cream cheese and Ikea chocolate cake.
In December 2012 suppliers for KFC violated rules on drugs used in poultry. When this information was released it caused Yum Brands Inc. sales of the restaurant chain to take a plunge and major financial hit. Yum Brands Inc. own KFC, Taco Bell and Pizza Hut.
Yum Brands Inc. had a Taco Bell food safety violation last week at their UK location when traces of horse meat were found in their ground meat used for taco filling.
KFC reported their sales for January were down by 37 percent. Yum Brands Inc. announced to their customers that they will use tighter measure of food quality control, in an effort to win back customers.
The Shanghai quarantine bureau said they had to destroy over 4,000 pounds of almond chocolate cake that was imported from Ikea because of excessive fecal coliform bacteria.
Ikea spokeswoman Ylva Magnusson said “the product was stopped and destroyed”. She also said none of the cakes made it to our restaurants.”
The chocolate almond cake is made by a Swedish supplier and sold in their Ikea stores in majority of the countries, so Ikea decided to pull the almond chocolate cake from 23 countries. Magnusson said they are looking into whether the cake should be pulled from sales elsewhere as well.
The Nestle chocolate bars were destroyed because they contained too much sorbitol. Sorbitol is a sweetener and if large amounts are added to food, it can cause serious bowel problems. Nestle refused to answer any calls on this matter.
In an email statement Kraft Foods China said that they imported a batch of cheese products from the U.S. to be used as internal samples. The company is part of Mondelez International Inc. said they didn’t receive certification by the expiration date that is why they destroyed the cheese.
An apology statement was issued which said “we hereby sincerely apologize for all concerns and doubts brought to consumer by this incident”.
Food safety is a big concern for consumers, and suppliers need to be held accountable. Mislabeling of goods is not acceptable.
The suppliers deceive the companies that hire them, and in turn the people who are valuable to the consumers are deceived. Consumers have a right to know if what they are purchasing is true to the label of what is being sold.
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