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Orion ordered to recall Custard pastries over bacterial contamination
Orion's Custard sits on a shelf at a large-scale food mart in Seoul. Yonhap
By Ko Dong-hwan
Orion has been slapped with an order to stop selling and recall its long-surviving Custard pastry products after bacteria was detected in some of the products, according to the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety, Wednesday.
The products made by one of the company's factories in Cheongju, North Chungcheong Province, were found to contain staphylococcus aureus, a type of bacteria capable of causing food poisoning. It is also known to cause a range of illnesses, from minor skin infections to life-threatening diseases such as pneumonia, meningitis and toxic shock syndrome.
The ministry discovered the bacteria after inspecting five random Custard products for quality control. The samples, each containing 12 separately packed Custard cakes, were made on Dec. 12 last year and had an expiration date of June 21 this year. The ministry said all five sampled products contained the bacteria.
The contaminated products were from a batch of over 4,000 Custard products made by the factory which altogether weighed 1,318 kilograms, according to local reports.
The ministry, upon making the discovery, ordered the Cheongju city government to recall the products. The city said it received a report from Orion saying it will first recall part of the batch weighing 600 kilograms in total.
Orion said it has confirmed the bacterial contamination after being notified of the problem by the city government. The company said it plans to recall all Custard products from the batch by Friday.
The ministry, meanwhile, advised the public to stop eating the Custard products and return them to where they had purchased them.