Customers complain of worms in Cadbury

Our Bureaus

Mumbai, Oct 3: Consumers are the khanewallas, but they definitely do not have a good bahaana to buy a Cadbury chocolate — not when they find a pack of Cadbury’s Fruit-n-Nut full of live worms merrily crawling out after a bite, amidst the fruits and nuts embedded in the chocolate, that the consumer has mouthfully cherished for all these years!

It is definitely not the real taste of life (pun intended) to spot these slimy creatures in your favourite ‘timepass’ product.

“FDA should clamp down on such erring companies,” says a consumer who purchased the worm-ridden pack. “Had it been in the US, the company would have been answering for such health related lapses in the witness box. But it is India and you know how the chalta hai attitude has lulled us all into complacency,” fumes the consumer.

The date of packing for this product in question was a safe June 2001, and wrapper marked “Best before June 2002”, priced at a cool Rs 22. “Such substandard products become matters of public concern more because their target audience is kids,” the consumer further opines.

This way, not only will the consumer recall (in this case a negative one) zoom, but the company may not be able to fulfil its dream of “A Cadbury in every pocket”.

“Infestation can occur at the retail end,” a Cadbury India spokesperson said, when contacted by this newspaper. The spokesperson further explains that when the chocolate is manufactured, it is done in hygienic conditions and it is only at certain retailers’ end that the infestation happens.

“Infestation can happen at certain retailers’ end where chocolates are stored along with granary which is susceptible to such infestations,” says the company spokesperson. Even as consumers point out that such happenings are not rare, the company is adamant that these are “stray” cases. The company says that products will not be recalled from the market.