I bought boxed clams at Costco and was shocked to see a cigarette butt! Food and Drug Administration traces source and industry responds – Mirror Media

A netizen in the Facebook group “Costco Product Experience Honesty” shared that after purchasing 2 boxes of clams on the 8th of this month, one box was eaten on the same day, and the other box was not opened until last week and was spit out for cooking. Unexpectedly I actually found cigarette butts and a box full of dregs inside the box, but there was no smoker at home, so I was lucky that I had the chance to confirm the situation.

After receiving the complaint, Councilor Chen Youcheng instructed the Health Bureau to activate the inspection mechanism, asked the Legal Affairs Bureau to handle the consumer protection law, and called on Costco to pay more attention to food safety control.

In this regard, the Health Bureau has sent personnel to Costco this afternoon (27th) to conduct an inspection to find out whether the problem is at the packaging factory or at the source farm. If the product is imported, it will be transferred to the Food and Drug Administration for management at the source.

Lin Jinfu, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration, revealed that after inspection by the Health Bureau of the Kaohsiung City Government, the origin of the clams in question was marked as “Taiwan/Farming”, and the domestic responsible manufacturer was “Jiaxian International Co., Ltd.” The Health Bureau investigates and investigates. If the process hygiene and quality assurance system violates the “Good Food Hygiene Practices” (GHP) guidelines, it will be ordered to make corrections within a time limit in accordance with the provisions of the “Food Safety Act”. Failure to make corrections may result in a fine of not less than NT$60,000 and 2 A fine of up to 100 million yuan.

Costco responded that the member went to the store for a refund on the 22nd of this month. Costco has also notified the manufacturer for further information. The manufacturer responded that their work management process requires staff to dress and clear their clothes before proceeding. Entering the production area, clam raw materials and packaging materials will also be inspected, cleaned and packaged. The working area is a low-temperature, non-smoking environment, so the chance of foreign matter remaining is extremely low. The manufacturer has determined that there are no items in the factory that match or are similar to customer complaints. The monthly sales of this product exceeds 10,000, and no other similar cases have been received so far. This should be a single incident, and since the product has been opened, it is difficult to determine whether foreign objects have fallen into it. Due to actual reasons, he said that he would strengthen the training of factory workers of the supplier, and inspect each box after production before packing and shipping.

★”Mirror Weekly” cares about you: Smoking is harmful to physical and mental health.