Lee Hyo-sik is Finance Desk editor at The Korea Times. He manages finance-related stories on macroeconomics, banks, stocks, bonds, crypto etc. He is passionate about covering what's happening in Korea's financial industry and explaining it to both Korean and non-Korean readers. You can reach him at leehs@koreatimes.co.kr. Your insights and feedbacks are always appreciated.
Lotte Confectionary recalls popular snacks for foul smell
By Lee Hyo-sik
By Lee Hyo-sik
Lotte Confectionary, Korea’s largest snack maker has recalled two of its best selling snacks following numerous consumer complaints about a foul odor emanating from them. The products at issue are White Cookie Pepero and Ghana Choco Bar Almond.
The company said Thursday that it has retrieved 290,000 boxes of White Cookie Pepero worth 6.7 billion won since Nov. 12. The snacks were manufactured at its plant in Yangsan, South Gyeongsang Province, from June through October.
In addition, 500 boxes of Ghana Choco Bar Almond produced at the plant on Oct. 30 are on the company’s recall list as consumers who bought them also complained about a bad smell.
“We decided to voluntarily recall all the products at issue even though they are perfectly safe to be consumed,” a Lotte Confectionary spokesman said. “The bad odor resulted from wet ink on the product packages. However, after considering growing consumer complaints, we decided to remove them from store shelves.”
He said Lotte completed the withdrawal of all remaining snacks from the market, stressing that it voluntarily reported the problem to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety.
“The odd smell from the package is not the cause of the mandatory recall. But we decided to do so because we care about consumers,” he said. “We should have waited for the ink on the package to dry. But to meet surging demand for Pepero ahead of the Nov. 11 Pepero Day, we put snacks into packages with wet ink. Even though this generated an odd smell, there is nothing wrong with the snacks. They are safe to eat.”
Nonetheless, the ministry is currently investigating Lotte’s Yangsan plant to find out what the problem was. After receiving multiple consumer complaints about the two snacks, it asked Lotte to voluntarily recall them.
“Our regional office in Busan is going through the Yangsan plant to see what went wrong,” a ministry official said.
In July, Lotte was ordered to recall Ghana Choco Bar Peanut after the product was found to have contained six times more bacteria than legally permitted. At the time, the company withdrew 2,800 boxes of the snack, manufactured on April 16, and disposed of them.