Ikea Dubai responds to customer concerns

Ikea Dubai responds to customer concerns

'Concerned customers can, as always, return their products to get a refund', says Ikea

March 10, 2013 3:36 by kippreport

One week ago Kipp reported on IKEA withdrawing sales of their almond chocolate cakes from 23 countries around the world, including the United Arab Emirates, after traces of human waste (coliform) were discovered.

The Swedish furniture retailer says that traces of the coliform bacteria were found only in two isolated production batches and that their withdrawal was more precautionary than anything else.

Kipp has contacted the Al Futtaim Group in Dubai for further clarification and they’ve responded with several points, and have answered a few questions for the general public:

“Global IKEA and IKEA UAE are both committed to serving high quality food that is safe, healthy and produced with care for the environment.”

Traces of coliform bacteria have been found in two isolated production batches of Almond cake with chocolate and butterscotch, produced for the Restaurant, from one supplier in Sweden. There is no health risk associated with consuming this product. The production batches have, as per safety and quality routines, been tested for bacteria that can cause health issues, such as E.coli, and none of these pathogen bacteria have been found.

However, since the product does not comply with our strict food quality standards we have decided to withdraw the concerned production batches from sales.

We are in continued dialogue with the supplier to get the full picture.

Questions & Answers

Which supplier does the cake come from?

The concerned batches come from the Swedish supplier, Almondy.

What kind of bacteria is found?

Traces of coliform bacteria have been found in two isolated production batches of Almond cake chocolate and butterscotch from one supplier in Sweden. There is no health risk associated with consuming this product. The production batches have, as per our safety and quality routines, been tested for bacteria that can cause health issues, such as E.coli, and none of these pathogen bacteria have been found.

Can customers return their IKEA Food products?

The concerned batches have not been sold in the Swedish Food market. However, concerned customers can, as always, return their products to get a refund. There is no health risk associated with consuming this product.

Has the cake been sold anywhere else?

Twenty-three countries have received the Almond cake chocolate and butterscotch from the concerned batches. There is no health risk associated with consuming this product. The production batches have, as per our safety and quality routines, been tested for bacteria that can cause health issues, such as E.coli, and none of these pathogen bacteria have been found. The sales of the concerned batches have now been stopped.

What tests are normally done?

Bacteriological tests are continuously performed on all our food products. All production batches of our cakes have been tested for E.coli and Salmonella at the suppliers, including these batches. No indications of these kinds of bacteria have been found.