Cockroach found in meal - How to respond to an unjustified complaint?

Dear All,

How you can we prove, as a food business or a food production, when you receive a written complaint along with the original sample that said he or she found a cockroach in his/her meal. What kind of reply could you send them since your area is free from pests and no signs appear during the process, but ultimately your are receiving such as these complaints which can affect your business. Please share me a reasonable official report that can be sent to a valuable customer when a case such as this occurs?

Regards

Hygienic

Just site all your controls and justify that there is no way a pest can get inside or even be present inside your processing area. Moreover, conduct an investigation as to how they were able to find the roach in your product. If its possible that they describe or send you pictures of the product contaminated with the pest... you know nowadays that some people are just making this as a reason to get money. :gleam:

Dear Hygienic,

Innocent until proven Guilty.

Unless you have reason to believe a significant possibility.

But in any case, as previous post, evidence is the first self-protection from fraudsters, requested in a brief, polite/apologetic way or via an authoritative looking form. There are form examples on this forum (somewhere).

Rgds / Charles.C

Dear All;

 

How you can prove ,as a food business or a food production , when you recieve a writen complain along with the original sample  that said he or she found a cockroach in his/her meal , what kind of reply could you send them since your area is free from pests and no signs appear during the process , but ultimately your are receiving such as these complains which can effect your business. Please share me a reasonable offical report that can be sent to a valuable customer when a case such as this occure ?

 

 

Regards

Hygienic

Have your pest controller investigate & report. Also consider if it is possible to have been in an ingredient.

Regards,

Tony

Do they still have the cockroach? We had a similar complaint that we sent to a lab for analysis. It was not a bug of any kind. But perhaps a lab can help you track where it was introduced to your process.

Just site all your controls and justify that there is no way a pest can get inside or even be present inside your processing area. Moreover, conduct an investigation as to how they were able to find the roach in your product. If its possible that they describe or send you pictures of the product contaminated with the pest... you know nowadays that some people are just making this as a reason to get money. :gleam:

yes, what you are saying is correct , money is the aim .

Have your pest controller investigate & report. Also consider if it is possible to have been in an ingredient.

 

Regards,

 

Tony

this what i guesed , maybe from the frozen products which we use .. any way their reports clear and there was no remarks that there is signs of cockroaches .

As Maddox mentioned, sometimes complaints are an effort to perpetrate fraud on the producer. Did the customer indicate if the roach was found after cooking? If so, and if you can obtain the roach, contact a food lab to see if they can test for enzymes that would be destroyed by cooking. A previous employer of mine did this and was able to proof the roach was added after the meal had been prepared.

Keith

I do not think so that there is a test like that , I asked about it but all said we do not have such as these tests

Yes, there is a test that can show whether or not something has undergone the cooking process.  It can also tell if it has been exposed to the manunfacturing process, by looking for knife or cut marks, etc.

Yes, there is a test that can show whether or not something has undergone the cooking process.  It can also tell if it has been exposed to the manunfacturing process, by looking for knife or cut marks, etc.

In the UK we would send to the Public Analyst who can certainly confirm whether or not the insect was cooked in the food, and will ID the insect too.

It is a tricky situation.the producer is always at risk in such situations as he has more to lose. and if the complaint was made with money and compensation, or spoiling reputation in mind,  it is better not to discuss much on the issue. As long as u r perfectly confident that your company was not the source of the roach, the person who complained can go ahead and  file a complaint with govt authorities (of course u dont tell him to do that yourself). Prepare yourself for any inspection so that you can come out with a clean name during the inspection. 

the real danger is that he goes to the press directly, in which case the milk is already spilt and there is no way but to file a defamation case against the complainant. 

but if u have the doubt that there is a chance that the contamination is from ur side,  then ur case is weak.

these are what came to my mind 

I do not think so that there is a test like that , I asked about it but all said we do not have such as these tests

The test is for Phosphatase, an enzyme found in all living cells which is easily destroyed by heat. Commonly used in the UK to disprove such allegations.