Worms seen wriggling in papads

Complainant. S.R. Saran who runs a consumer products agency told DC that his employees, five boys, lived in a rented accommodation in Sarvanampatty. On Monday night they had gone to the Ganapathy departmental store near by and purchased two packets of Dots Appalam. When they returned home and opened one packet, it was full of worms. When they opened the other packet, they found worms in those appalams as well.

“They immediately called the customer care number and informed them about the worms. But the response from the customer care centre was very callous and they did not take any responsibility. The next day I made it a point to go to the departmental store and purchase all the Dots appalam available there,” said Saran. Meanwhile the sales manager of the Idayam brand visited the house of staff and promised another free packet of wormless appalam!”.

“Their attitude is shocking. They are least bothered about food standards and safety of the public. Film actors Jothika and Sneha have been mindlessly featuring on these ads without any concern on food standards, he said.

“The sample has been handed over to the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department. Once the results are out, we plan to move Court”, he said.

Designated Officer of the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department Dr A. Kathiravan told DC that they have received the samples, one opened packet and another unopened. As there is no receipt for the purchase of the product from the departmental stores (and while it is true that small departmental stores do not provide receipts), it is difficult to prove that the appalam was purchased there. Moreover when the packet is opened, again it becomes difficult to prove when the worms could have developed.

There is however no issueswith the expiry date as per the packet details, the expiry date is four months from June. The samples have been taken and results are awaited, he added.