Tests conducted by the Telangana State Food Laboratory confirmed the quality compromise in the Cadbury chocolate which was found with a live worm crawling on the surface recently.
Robin Zaccheus, the customer who bought the chocolate from the Ratnadeep Supermarket in the Ameerpet Metro Rail station, Hyderabad and complained about the worm, posted the test results on social media platform X on February 28.
Of the two Dairy Milk chocolates he bought and provided as samples for the test, the one with roasted almond was marked by the lab as unsafe to consume, as ‘white worms and web’ were found in it. The second sample, which was a fruit & nut chocolate was marked ‘Not Unsafe’.
“It is perhaps high time that FMCG companies are made accountable and penalised for supplying unsafe food that our children consume very often,” Mr. Zachheus posted, tagging the manufacturer Mondelez International and Ratnadeep Retail in his post, and urged people to be cautious while consuming these chocolates. He demanded that the licenses of both the establishments be cancelled.
The chocolates were bought on February 9, when Zachheus took to social media to expose the flagrant violation of food safety norms. GHMC’s Food Safety officials took cognizance of the same, and inspected the supermarket soon after, and instructed the latter not to sell the merchandise with the same batch number. Further action from them is awaited.
Meanwhile, a statement attributed to the Mondelez India spokesperson said tests have been conducted on the samples from the same batch and other batches manufactured around the same time, which found no issues in them.
The company followed internationally accepted HACCP (Hazard Analysis & Critical Control Points) programme, the statement said and expressed confidence that the product had not been affected during manufacturing process.
Indicating the possibility of problems with storage and environment, it said every Cadbury carried the label ‘Store in a cool, hygienic and dry place’.
