Food Safety Concern

Welcome to Vietnam.

THIGV wrote:

Welcome to Vietnam.

Chocolate bar wrapper says made in Malaysia.

I think you missed my drift.  Let me rephrase it:  Welcome to the third world.

So how come you didn't say that to begin with. You said Vietnam. You were implying that Vietnam has a bad food safety record. Now you are saying all of the "third world" has a bad food safety record. You cannot generalise from the particular.

Also, Vietnam is not a "third world" country, it's a developing country, so is Malaysia.

edit: use of "Third World" now is a misnomer (Anachronisms).

How about 4th world?

If u all are living in Vietnam. Pls, do not use the impolite word like third world where u are living in it is not different u are laughing at you.
If u do not want it u can return to the supermarket. people want to get profit not only yellow skin people but also western ones inclusive too

The chocolate bar wrapper has Address in Malaysia, and has Manufacture date: 16/03/2015. It was foil wrapped and I had a tough time unwrapping it (there was no holes or tearing of wrapper before opening). Could the insects have been these since March 2015?.
Even then the supermarket cannot sell such item, so I told them about it. I am more worried if the other chocolates of the same batch may be affected. What if a small child gets one with the ants and small worm.

I would have contacted the manufacturer in Malaysia, but there is no email address or phone number. There is an address for the Vietnam importer/distributor on the chocolate wrapper, it says LB Vietnam Co Ltd, Tang 6, Toa Nha Central Garden, 328 Võ Văn Kiệt, Q1, TP, HCM.

Is it enough only to tell the Supermarket?, what if the counter staff don't do anything about it. (They may not have understood what I was talking about)

sanooku wrote:

How do I report a food safety concern in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)?.

Bought a chocolate bar from a Supermarket, and although the expiry date is 15 Sep 2016, it had insects in it. Foil wrapped chocolate bar, so no idea how they got inside.

I told the counter staff at the supermarket, but feel it should be reported officially.

LOL

At first I thought this was a joke. No one will care about your expired candy bar. To be honest, Sept 2016 is still pretty fresh for here.

It obvious you haven't been here long. If you make it over a year, you'll understand why this questions is so funny

Adhome01 wrote:

sanooku wrote:

How do I report a food safety concern in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)?.

Bought a chocolate bar from a Supermarket, and although the expiry date is 15 Sep 2016, it had insects in it. Foil wrapped chocolate bar, so no idea how they got inside.

I told the counter staff at the supermarket, but feel it should be reported officially.

LOL

At first I thought this was a joke. No one will care about your expired candy bar. To be honest, Sept 2016 is still pretty fresh for here.

It obvious you haven't been here long. If you make it over a year, you'll understand why this questions is so funny

The innocence of a child

Seriously, Adhome has it right on the nail - no one will even care pretty much anywhere in Asia, with the possible exception of Singapore.

You wouldn't find this funny if it happened to your 6yr old son/daughter.

Fred wrote:

Adhome01 wrote:

sanooku wrote:

How do I report a food safety concern in Saigon (Ho Chi Minh City)?.

Bought a chocolate bar from a Supermarket, and although the expiry date is 15 Sep 2016, it had insects in it. Foil wrapped chocolate bar, so no idea how they got inside.

I told the counter staff at the supermarket, but feel it should be reported officially.

LOL

At first I thought this was a joke. No one will care about your expired candy bar. To be honest, Sept 2016 is still pretty fresh for here.

It obvious you haven't been here long. If you make it over a year, you'll understand why this questions is so funny

The innocence of a child

Seriously, Adhome has it right on the nail - no one will even care pretty much anywhere in Asia, with the possible exception of Singapore.

...with the possible exception of Singapore.

Case in point.

Sanooku:  I took the liberty of looking at your profile.  After all it is public.  I see that you come from Pakistan which sheds light on your sensitivity about the term third world.  Personally, I do not consider it pejorative but descriptive, although I would concede that what used to be called third world has become somewhat fragmented.

I would like to ask if you could tell us how the candy bar situation that has you so up in arms would be handled in your home country.    Would the store clerks immediately report the contamination to higher authorities?  Would you expect and receive an action report from a government agency?  Would the manufacturer or importer be fined or censured?  Please do tell us. 

For myself, I would simply throw the candy bar away and write it off to experience.

Adhome01 - is that another way of saying athome or ad hominem?

Anyway, do you realize it's not 2016 yet?. It's still 2015. So the candy bar hadn't expired, but was still bad.

Even if the expiry date was two years from now (or two days from now) you wouldn't (shouldn't) expect to see creepy crawlies inside. i.e. not a good experience for a small child enjoying a candy bar.

THIGV wrote:

Sanooku:  I took the liberty of looking at your profile.  After all it is public.  I see that you come from Pakistan which sheds light on your sensitivity about the term third world.  Personally, I do not consider it pejorative but descriptive, although I would concede that what used to be called third world has become somewhat fragmented.

I would like to ask if you could tell us how the candy bar situation that has you so up in arms would be handled in your home country.    Would the store clerks immediately report the contamination to higher authorities?  Would you expect and receive an action report from a government agency?  Would the manufacturer or importer be fined or censured?  Please do tell us. 

For myself, I would simply throw the candy bar away and write it off to experience.

Would you buy a candy bar that was made in Malaysia after hearing about this?

sanooku wrote:

THIGV wrote:

Sanooku:  I took the liberty of looking at your profile.  After all it is public.  I see that you come from Pakistan which sheds light on your sensitivity about the term third world.  Personally, I do not consider it pejorative but descriptive, although I would concede that what used to be called third world has become somewhat fragmented.

I would like to ask if you could tell us how the candy bar situation that has you so up in arms would be handled in your home country.    Would the store clerks immediately report the contamination to higher authorities?  Would you expect and receive an action report from a government agency?  Would the manufacturer or importer be fined or censured?  Please do tell us. 

For myself, I would simply throw the candy bar away and write it off to experience.

Would you buy a candy bar that was made in Malaysia after hearing about this?

Yes but I generally don't eat candy.  Not good for the teeth.   

THIGV wrote:

sanooku wrote:

THIGV wrote:

Sanooku:  I took the liberty of looking at your profile.  After all it is public.  I see that you come from Pakistan which sheds light on your sensitivity about the term third world.  Personally, I do not consider it pejorative but descriptive, although I would concede that what used to be called third world has become somewhat fragmented.

I would like to ask if you could tell us how the candy bar situation that has you so up in arms would be handled in your home country.    Would the store clerks immediately report the contamination to higher authorities?  Would you expect and receive an action report from a government agency?  Would the manufacturer or importer be fined or censured?  Please do tell us. 

For myself, I would simply throw the candy bar away and write it off to experience.

Would you buy a candy bar that was made in Malaysia after hearing about this?

Yes but I generally don't eat candy.  Not good for the teeth.   

Very funny..notice I said "would you buy". Dosen't mean you have to eat it. You could buy it for someone else.

Unless of course, you've never bought a candy bar for anyone (even kids) because its not good for their teeth.

Too much of anything is bad...only a dentist would say all chocolate is bad. Actually, cocoa has some good properties, which is how come dark chocolate is especially good.

I am sure if you stick to brushing your teeth and flossing, you can maintain a pretty much perfect set...

I am sorry but you really need to find your sense of humor.

By the way you haven't answered my queries about how this would be handled in Pakistan.

sanooku wrote:

Would you buy a candy bar that was made in Malaysia after hearing about this?

I would.
If you know the slightest thing about food processing plants (I can assure you I do after 10 years of on site experience), you'd know these things happen from time to time, and no amount of complaining or new procedures at the factories will change it.
One rough item of product will always get through because it's impossible to inspect every single bar unit that leaves the place.
Insects could have laid eggs in the bar, hatched, grown, then died in the bar with no hope of anyone knowing until they open it, explaining why you couldn't find a problem with the wrapper.
This would normally be a minor issue you're complaining about, but you're making a massive deal out of it, more so when you consider the likely attitude to such an issue in this area of the world.
You mentioned my attitude if my kid had found it - exactly the same.

This minor, nothing issue isn't worth much more than an email to the factory in the hope of getting a free bar, if that.

@THIGV: Tend to have a sense of humour on more intelligent topics.

also, your question is not a sensible question. If your argument was to hold, it would mean the following: it dosn't matter where I purchase a product, but food standards will always be judged according to my 'home' country. That's absurd. For one, I could have only lived in Pakistan for 1 year of my life then moved to U.S for example.

Do you see where you have gone wrong?

@Fred: I think there is some covering-up going on here. It just so happens that someone who has 10 years experience working in food processing plants happen to see this. Are you sure no one put you up to replying to this thread?. You seem to have a lot of knowledge about my background.

Anyway, I have 30+ years experience eating chocolate and I have never come across this. I also have vast experience where I have complained and been successful in bringing about change. People have the power to bring about change.

You will only believe that people don't have this power if you live in the dark ages. Judging by your reply, you are.

Your reply is inconsistent because, you have said if some insects laid eggs, they could have hatched and died in the bar. These insects were live. They fell out when I was eating the bar. Also, your theory is misguided because the old wives tale about apples (always one rotten one), wouldn't apply to chocolate, or that only one bar would definitely be affected. Also, nor would working in any food processing plant qualify you to comment on chocolate processing plants.

If insects had laid eggs in the mixture it doesn't necessarily affect one bar. Come on!, you don't need 10 years of experience in food processing to know that. If insects could lay eggs in a processed bar of chocolate, you really have to question the manufacturing processes.

edit: You say "nothing issue isn't worth much more than an email to the factory..." - read my post #8 where I have said "I would have contacted the manufacturer in Malaysia, but there is no email address or phone number."

sanooku wrote:

@Fred: I think there is some covering-up going on here. It just so happens that someone who has 10 years experience working in food processing plants happen to see this. Are you sure no one put you up to replying to this thread?.

I admit it.

I work for a secret group of time travellers who scan future forum posts, then go back in time in order to join the forum, make thousands of posts to establish ourselves, all await the time for the moaning poster to start his thread,

Then fast as a hunting snail,  we pounce on the victim with the intent of making him look silly so his complaint seems like nothing blown  up to something.

The money is very good.

sanooku wrote:

Do you see where you have gone wrong?

Yes I do.   I now understand that you have absolutely no sense of proportionality and therefore can not deal with this problem as most people would.

Since you don't want to discuss how this problem would be dealt with in Pakistan, allow me to discuss how I would handle it in the US.  After getting over my initial revulsion, I would throw the candy away.  I might think about taking  a photo and sending it to the manufacturer to see if I could con them out of a few free bars but if I thought about it twice I would realize that my time was worth more than a candy bar.

Perhaps like you, I would be emotionally scarred for life but I doubt it.  I will admit that I could not drink Tiger Beer for a long time because I developed a severe headache the first time I drank one.  With time though, I realized that the connection was coincidental and now I can drink it if someone gives me one but I never buy it.  Now there's a solution for you.  Never buy that brand of candy again.

Make your complaint with the food company and move on. You are obviously obsessed with something that is trivial to most people. No one has injured or killed in this incident so why make a stink out of it?

I've never come across a 30year plus experienced chocolate eater , does that make you a professional ?
Your right , Fred  is an undercover double agent , paid to troll forums in order to protect the manufacturers reputation in catastrophic situations , such as this
I too would like to know how the Pakistan authorities would handle this .
For gods sake man , get a life , talk about pedantic , sheesh !!