Blade Found in Tuna Can

A piece of disposable blade found in a tuna can of Dongwon F&B.

By Kim Rahn
Staff Reporter

A fragment of a disposable blade was found in a tuna can, heightening consumer anxiety over food sanitation following a rat head being found in a popular snack.

Earlier this month, a Seoul resident identified as Jeong bit on a hard object while eating tuna from a can. The small black object, about 2 centimeters long, was a rusty piece of a disposable blade, according to the Green Customer Network Wednesday.

The blade was sharp enough to have hurt Jeong if he had chewed or swallowed it, the consumer group said.

However, when he reported it to the product maker, Dongwon F&B, the company did not take it seriously and said that it would give him a box of tuna cans in compensation. After Jeong refused, the company tried to offer products other than tuna, but he reported the case to the group.

The food maker took the blade from Jeong to examine, but failed to find out how it ended up in the can. The cans are produced at the company's factory in Changwon, South Gyeongsang Province.

``If it was a fishbone, it may have been left in by mistake. However, the tuna undergoes metal detection and X-ray scanning at the Changwon factory, so a foreign object such as a blade cannot be included in the products,'' a company spokesman said. ``We cannot understand how it happened. It is the first time since we began making the product in 1982.''

``Whatever the reason, we acknowledge that it is our fault,'' he said.

He said the company tried to give Jeong the box of tuna according to its customer protection policy, adding it was not an attempt to cover up the case.

Officials from the Korea Food and Drug Administration conducted an investigation at the factory Thursday.

The case emerged only days after it was reported that an object suspected of being a rat's head was found in ``Saewookkang'' (shrimp snack) made by the nation's largest snack maker.

rahnita@koreatimes.co.kr

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