She was shocked and disgusted when she opened a tin of milk powder meant for her kids aged three and four.
Blogshop owner Perline Chua caught a whiff of a foul smell, and when she peered into the tin of Friso Gold 4, she could see insects crawling inside.
Madam Chua, 34, told The New Paper of the Oct 30 incident: “I am already scared of insects, so when I saw what was in the tin, I quickly closed the lid and taped the tin with masking tape.”
“At first I thought there might be some contamination issues since the milk powder was brown, but I saw something crawling and realised something was not right,” said the mother of three who has been buying Friso since her first child was born. Her youngest is a-year-old.
Once she discovered the problem, Madam Chua called her husband, who was overseas. He told her to wait till he returned. On Tuesday night, he e-mailed the company.
The next afternoon, a FrieslandCampina employee visited her to investigate the case and offered to exchange the defective tin for a new one.
Madam Chua accepted the new tin but refused to give up the defective tin because she was afraid that the “evidence” might be destroyed in the investigation.
She said: “”I said no, so they took photos of the milk powder and said they would inform their manufacturer in Holland to investigate.”
The next day, she escalated her complaint to the Agri-Food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA), which collected the tin yesterday afternoon and said investigations are ongoing.
When asked if she noticed anything unusual when she bought it on Oct 27 at a Jurong shopping mall, Madam Chua said the tin seemed all right.
“It was only after the Friso person came and pointed it out did I realise that there was a dent at the bottom of the tin. I suspect the dent might have caused some air to flow into the tin, causing the insects to breed inside,” she added.
Madam Chua’s husband also took a video, which showed about 20 bugs crawling on the surface of the powder from just one side of the tin.
The dairy company’s director of corporate affairs Asia, Mr Hendro Poedjono, told TNP that it was “extremely shocked” and has sent the pictures of the defective tin back to its manufacturer in Holland.
He said: “We will be checking our samples from the same batch. The safety of customers and the quality of the milk powder is our utmost priority. We will be assisting AVA in its investigations.”
Asked if she had told her children about it, Madam Chua said: “No, I’m afraid they won’t want to drink milk after that.”
This article was first published on November 8, 2016.
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