Found sharp metal in a sweet!

jiltloop

I found a sharp piece of metal in a jelly (one of the big sweet companies!) and I'm just wondering what I should do about it.

I was lucky enough to spot it straight away, it definitely would have caused injury if I had chomped down on it without noticing and it doesn't bear thinking about if it had been one of my kids would go to it first!

What I have done so far is take pictures of the sweet which clearly show the metal embedded in the sweet and a sharp piece sticking out of it. I emailed a couple of pictures in to the company along with a complaints email. They have gotten back to me pretty quickly with a carefully worded apology (i.e not acknowledging the presence of metal in the sweet but apologizing that the sweet was not of satisfactory quality). They have also requested that I post the sweet in to them in order for them to investigate it further.

It's at this point that I am hesitant, obviously once I post this sweet in the only evidence I have left are the pictures. What is the company's resolution likely to be if I send the sweet in and they confirm (as is the case) that this is a very real and serious complaint?

Any advice on what to do next? Pretty scary that this kind of object can make it's way in to children's sweets and that's before even considering the hygiene aspect!

Kimbot

Well they will need to see if the metal object enetered the sweet during manufacture or after to see how much risk there is to others so the sooner you get it to them the better so they can recall any faulty batches before anyone gets hurt.

Pelvis

What do you want to happen? Yes it's serious, but nothing bad happened as a result.

All they can do is try and figure out why it happened, they're not going to have much success in doing that without inspecting the product.

CeilingFly

Are you looking for compensation?

What loss / injury have you suffered?

They didn't do it on purpose, they want to identify where the piece could have come from and the batch.

Send them what they have requested and they may give you a goodwill gesture.



Forget the catastrophe syndrome "what could have happened" and the "if my child are it line". If you really wish to help then help them fix the issue and stop grandstanding.

razorblunt

What do you want to get out of this? Them to improve their processes so it doesn't happen again? Compensation? Both?

njs030

Send it back and let them investigate so they can recall any batches as they see fit.

jiltloop

CeilingFly wrote: »

Are you looking for compensation?

What loss / injury have you suffered?

They didn't do it on purpose, they want to identify where the piece could have come from and the batch.

Send them what they have requested and they may give you a goodwill gesture.



Forget the catastrophe syndrome "what could have happened" and the "if my child are it line". If you really wish to help then help them fix the issue and stop grandstanding.

I just posted looking for advice, not sure why you're taking such a tone.

I didn't mention compensation, I didn't mention that there was any injury/loss suffered, I didn't accuse them of putting metal in the sweet on purpose.

I think that it's reasonable to think "what could have happened" when I'm eating sweets with my kids and find a sharp metal object in one of them.

What's with your attitude?! :mad:

jiltloop

razorblunt wrote: »

What do you want to get out of this? Them to improve their processes so it doesn't happen again? Compensation? Both?

No compensation, I would like to see that they take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen again but I'm afraid that if I send the sweet in that that will be the end of it and they won't bother responding once they have the evidence in hand. Maybe I'm being too cynical!

jiltloop

Thanks for the perspective guys, yeah I think sending it in as quickly as possible is the best way forward. As mentioned above a recall could be in order. I'm annoyed now though that I may have thrown the packet out, that could have been useful for isolating the batch. Although they didn't mention the packaging in the email.

beechwood55

I bought a pack of Pitta breads a few years ago and found a piece of plastic embedded in one of them (baked into it). Contacted the manufacturers who asked me to return the pack. About 2 weeks later I got a letter of apology and a voucher for €50. (They traced it to a broken oven knob!).
I would do as they ask.

CeilingFly

jiltloop wrote: »

I just posted looking for advice, not sure why you're taking such a tone.

I didn't mention compensation, I didn't mention that there was any injury/loss suffered, I didn't accuse them of putting metal in the sweet on purpose.

I think that it's reasonable to think "what could have happened" when I'm eating sweets with my kids and find a sharp metal object in one of them.

What's with your attitude?! :mad:

So why the hesitancy? Why be afraid of losing "evidence"

Why even need to find out what the right thing is to do?

As for the "what if" - the "if" didn't happen.

dudara

jiltloop wrote: »

Thanks for the perspective guys, yeah I think sending it in as quickly as possible is the best way forward. As mentioned above a recall could be in order. I'm annoyed now though that I may have thrown the packet out, that could have been useful for isolating the batch. Although they didn't mention the packaging in the email.

The packaging would be very helpful, if you can find it. It is important to send the piece back as the manufacturer can check against their production lines to identify the issue.

You have pictures and an email trail, so it won’t be like it never happened. Manufacturers take these things seriously, the negative publicity from a bad incident just isn’t worth it. Sh*t happens all the time, but taking steps to fix it is the important thing.

CeilingFly may be abrupt in his tone, but he’s right in one way. Nothing bad happened, so be thankful for that. Play your part to help keep it that way.

njs030

jiltloop wrote: »

Thanks for the perspective guys, yeah I think sending it in as quickly as possible is the best way forward. As mentioned above a recall could be in order. I'm annoyed now though that I may have thrown the packet out, that could have been useful for isolating the batch. Although they didn't mention the packaging in the email.

If you have the receipt from the shop where you bought it they may be able to track the batch that way or at least narrow it down.

razorblunt

jiltloop wrote: »

No compensation, I would like to see that they take steps to ensure that this doesn't happen again but I'm afraid that if I send the sweet in that that will be the end of it and they won't bother responding once they have the evidence in hand. Maybe I'm being too cynical!

In that case, take pics of the sweet, put that day's newspaper with the date behind it if you're worried about it disappearing.

Any other information would be helpful i.e. store it was bought it, if you've thrown out the packaging. It should hopefully allow them to at least narrow down the cause if they have a trail to work back from.

Whiplashy

I completely get where you're coming from. In this case though them asking you to send it back is a good thing. It means that hopefully they are taking it seriously and will try to find out how/why it happened. I had a similar issue with a well know bakery company a few years ago. They posted me out vouchers, but they didn't want the item sent back and I'm certain they did nothing about it. I would have been happier to get nothing off of them, and for them to take it seriously.

daheff

CeilingFly wrote: »

Are you looking for compensation?

What loss / injury have you suffered?

They didn't do it on purpose, they want to identify where the piece could have come from and the batch.

Send them what they have requested and they may give you a goodwill gesture.

If they were really interested in resolving the issue they would have asked for the packaging as well. that way they could trace the batch and where it was made etc.

seems like they want the evidence to cover their tracks (at the very least).

IMO send this all on to them...keep a record of whats sent (pictures etc)

send by reg post and send a copy to the food authority (or whatever agency covers this area). If its serious the Food Authority would investigate.