The Hindu : Karnataka / Bangalore News : Chocolate lover gets more than she bargained for

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Dec 25, 2007
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Karnataka

Karnataka - Bangalore

Chocolate lover gets more than she bargained for

Raghava M.

Worms found in Nestle’s confectionery; company investigating the problem

— Photo: K. Murali Kumar

A CHOCOLATE OF WORMS: A worm found in a chocolate manufactured by Nestle, in Bangalore.

BANGALORE: Raghuram P.R., an Indian Air Force employee, is preparing to take legal action against Nestle India Private Limited for allegedly selling a piece of confectionery with worms in it.

As the confectionery costs just Rs. 2 apiece, Mr. Raghuram did not bother to get a receipt for the purchase as one would when buying more expensive stuff. That has not deterred him from following up the issue coinciding as it is with the National Consumers Day on Monday.

Two weeks ago, Mr. Raghuram purchased from a bakery two Nestle Milkybar Choo Strawberry chocolates for his daughter, three-year-old Aanchal. “She loves to eat Milkybar,” he said.

Mr. Raghuram opened one of them. “To my shock, I found worms in the chocolate. I threw it in the dustbin and opened the second Milkybar. I found worms in this too. I was shocked to see this from such a well-known manufacturer,” he said.

His wife, Yogeshwari P.S., took the second Milkybar to the bakery. “The bakery owner wanted to take it back and replace it with a new one,” Ms. Yogeshwari said. But she did not give it back, choosing instead to retain the Milkybar, which was manufactured in November. The condition of the Milkybar was brought to the notice of Nestle Consumer Services in New Delhi.

The company personnel came to Mr Raghuram’s house.

“They wanted me to give the defective Milkybar for testing purposes,” Ms. Yogeshwari said. But she was not willing to do so as the company personnel were not willing to give any acknowledgement. “If I had given the sample, I would have been left with no proof of the defect,” she said.

Mr. Raghuram, ever the conscientious consumer, is sending the Milkybar to a laboratory to get it analysed before taking legal measures against the manufacturer. “My daughter is now scared to eat Milkybars,” he said.

When The Hindu contacted Nestle, Himanshu Manglik, Senior Manager (Corporate Communications) of Nestle, said in an email: “Consumer trust is very important for us and we are thoroughly investigating the problem reported by the consumer. In accordance with established procedure, we immediately checked the manufacturing records, the reference packs as well as the samples of the batch referred to by the consumer and picked up by us from the market. We confirm that all the checked samples were in good condition and safe and this batch was released from the factory after meeting the quality standards. We have also met the consumer personally and requested to provide the complaint pack for investigation. Unfortunately, since the consumer has not provided us the pack, we are unable to comment further on this isolated instance reported. We would like to reiterate that our consumers are very important to us and we are committed to providing them with high quality and safe food products.”

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