By Kim Tae-jong
Staff Reporter
A big piece of fungus was found in grape juice produced by Lotte Chilsung Beverage.
A consumer who had stomachache from food poisoning after drinking the juice demanded compensation for damages but the company instead blamed him for the incident.
According to the Korea Food and Drug Administration (KFDA), a man in Gwangyang in South Jeolla Province purchased a bottle of grape juice on May 14 from a nearby discount store.
He opened the bottle on May 25 and drank some of it but got stomachache on June 1. He first thought that the juice had simply gone bad and poured the rest of the juice into the sink when he found a thin foreign substance in the bottle.
The man immediately reported the incident to Lotte Chilsung Beverage and went for medical treatment along with his wife who also showed similar symptoms.
The company collected the bottle the following day to examine what the substance was. A week later, the company informed him of the examination result showing the substance that had penetrated the bottle was fungal matter.
The company reported the result to KFDA and promised it would cover the man's medical costs.
But the man claimed more extensive compensation including psychological damages, criticizing the company for attempting to treat the incident as a minor problem.
But the company said that the consumer should also bear responsibility for keeping the juice in the wrong manner which they claimed caused the juice to be contaminated, given that he had no problem when he first opened the bottle and drank it.