Consumer finds piece of glass in chocolate

MANGALORE: After worms, it's a piece of glass in chocolate now. The silk experience wasn't silky for Rachel Thomas of Manipal. In the first week of September, her 27-year-old son Abhishek Thomas took a bite into a bar of chocolate and crunched what he thought was a dry fruit. In seconds, he realized it was a piece of glass and spat it out. The bar of chocolate is from the June 2014 batch of Cadbury's Dairy Milk Silk Orange Peel (No. I40622 B1). An angry Abhishek shot off a letter to the manufacturer Mondelez India Foods on September 6, seeking stringent quality checks on products, course correction and compensation. The letter read: "If I or any of my family members had consumed this product, it could have been a matter of life and death." Rachel, a housewife, said: "My son fortunately realized it was a piece of glass and told me not to eat the chocolate. About 80% of the chocolate is still with us.'' Within days of receiving the letter, Mondelez India sent its Hubli sales executive SS Manishankar to meet Rachel in Manipal. The executive asked for the remains of the chocolate for a quality assessment. She refused to part with it. She told TOI: "If I give the chocolate away, I won't have any proof to press my claim if I decide to approach the consumer court." She placed three demands before the company: recall the defective batch, donate Rs 10,000 to Spastics Society, Manipal, and gift chocolates to five orphanages around Manipal. The company, in its reply, offered to send a like replacement to the Thomas family. Hinting at quality deficit in some products, Rachel, whose husband is employed in the Middle East, said: "We get the same brand of chocolates abroad and the quality is far superior." -TOI