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| Binggrae's Gracia Cookie & Cream ice cream, left, and Dongwon F&B's Yangban Sura Seolleongtang / Courtesy of Binggrae, Dongwon F&B |
By Kim Jae-heun
Dongwon Food & Beverage (F&B) and Binggrae have issued recalls for their products that have been found to contain bacteria and iron fragments, while providing refunds to buyers, according to company officials Monday.
Dongwon F&B posted an official apology on its homepage recently saying that "the company was notified by the Busan Public Health and Environment Research Institute that some of its Yangban brand's seolleongtang products tested positive on bacterial growth testing." Seolleongtang is the Korean name for ox bone soup.
"We are truly sorry for the inconvenience. We will take thorough complementary measures and make sure the same problem does not occur again," Dongwon F&B CEO Kim Sung-yong said.
The products to be recalled are those produced at Dongwon F&B's plant in Gwangju on Oct. 14, 2022, with an expiration date of Oct. 13, 2023. The company began the recall on the seolleongtang products on Dec. 29, 2022.
Ice cream maker Binggrae also notified its customers online on Dec. 30 that its 750-milliliter Gracia Cookie & Cream ice cream may contain foreign metallic substances and the company will voluntarily recall them.
In the case of Binggrae, an in-house inspection on the ice cream production process led to the discovery of the issue.
"We apologize for the inconvenience caused by our product. We are conducting an overall inspection of the production processes on all of our items currently. We will do our best to prevent such issues from recurring by identifying the exact cause while making every effort to manage the quality of products," a Binggrae official said.
The contaminated Gracia Cookie & Cream products were manufactured at Binggrae's Namyangju plant in Gyeonggi Province on Nov. 28 and 29 and on Dec. 12, 19 and 20.
