Kimaball baked beans recalled from Dubai market

BY PMA RASHEED

The Gulf Today, 6 July 2010

Dubai Municipality (DM) gave a week’s deadline to the distributor of Kimball baked beans to generate information from the product’s Malaysian manufacturer, after a consumer spotted a lizard in a beans can last week.

A team from the civic body’s food inspection section is currently carrying out detailed inspections on the contaminated batch of the Kimbal beans, a brand of Campbell’s foodstuff manufacturers in Malaysia.

A senior official of the DM told The Gulf Today that the food inspection section of the Municipality received a complaint on spotting the lizard in the beans can on 29^th of the last month.

Following the report of the foreign material found in one can of Kimball baked beans, an official of the distributor of the brand told The Gulf Today that the manufacturer has assured the Dubai Municipality on maintaining world-class public health safety standards in their production processes.

Ahmad Al Ali, Food Inspection Section Head at the DM, said, “We have contacted the regional supplier of Campbell foods to provide explanation on how the lizard ended up in the can. We have ordered recall of the batch of Kimball baked beans bearing the production date 13 Jan 2010 and expiry date 13 July 2011 in the GCC.

“We also have requested the supplier to provide evidences on the health management system of the Kimball factory in Malaysia, as well as evidence of the corrective actions taken to ensure that this kind of contamination will not be repeated,” he elaborated.

Al Ali added that this kind of contamination is considered as physical contamination which can be identified by naked eyes. Luckily the consumer had not eaten the piece of lizard.

Wickus Saunders, COO of Choithram Group, distributor of the brand in the region, said, “We have requested an examination of the foreign material to facilitate the completion of a full and thorough investigation. We have initiated a process to remove all the remaining cans of the same batch from the shelves.”

“We apologise for any distress this experience may have caused, also confirm that no other complaints of a similar nature have been received. Those who come across this batch are requested to ring up on 04-3474574,” he added.

“Meanwhile, the batch of beans cans have been imported to the UAE through the proper procedures and legal channels. Samples of all imported food stuff will undergo examinations before releasing the shipment. But, each tin has to be opened to detect this particular type of issue,” noted Al Ali.

Al Ali urged the public to notify the Municipality call centre on 800-900, if they found the same product which produced in January 2010.

According to earlier reports, the contaminated Kimball baked beans tin was sold to a customer named Sandeep Sequeira at a grocery store in Bur Dubai.

Half part of the lizard was spotted right on top of the can when he opened the can for preparing food.

The bottom half of the lizard might be in any tin of the same batch of the baked beans distributed anywhere in the world.