What’s ‘bugging’ IKEA? The Swedish giant is in the dock again after a customer complained of contaminated food being served at their Hyderabad store on Wednesday. IKEA has found a new pest. This time a pesky fly appears to have sat on a customer’s chocolate cake.
The incident came into light after a Hyderabad man tweeted that he found “an insect” inside the cake while his daughter was eating it.
#Ikeahyderbad I found an insect inside the chocolate cake which came out while my daughter was eating the cake at IKEA store today in Hyderabad. https://t.co/zrQnMX8rOI @TV9Telugu @KTRTRS sir @hydcitypolice @THHyderabad @Abnandhrajyothi pic.twitter.com/9rtQduiiV7 pic.twitter.com/UOqSB72ETs
— Kishore2018 (@Kishore20181) September 12, 2018
Initially, the IKEA officials told the media that they would not like to comment at the time as they had no information on the incident.
On Thursday evening, IKEA spokesperson said in a statement that they regretted and apologise for the unfortunate incident.
“In our Hyderabad restaurant when a customer was eating a chocolate cake which he bought, a fly was seen on the cake which eventually ‘flew away’. We regret this and apologize to our customer for the unfortunate experience. We are taking steps to avoid such occurrences," the statement read.
Unlike other media reports suggesting that the Swedish giant was slapped a fine of Rs 5,000 by the GHMC food authorities, IKEA in its statement further clarified that it has not been issued any notice or fined by the corporation in light of the incident.
While many on Twitter condemned the incident, a few also say that it could be an attempt to tarnish the image of the IKEA store in India.
But this isn’t the first such incident involving IKEA. Last month, a caterpillar was found in the biryani that was served in the store. After a complaint was registered with the food safety officer with the GHMC, a penalty of Rs 11,500 was levied against the IKEA store through the GHMC Hotel App. The restaurant manager was also issued a notice and a notice was also sent to Haldirams, the vegetable biryani vendor at Nagpur, from where the restaurant procures its food. The leftover consignment of the biryani in question was quarantined by IKEA.
The IKEA restaurant can seat over a 1,000 people and has been billed as their largest in the world. The café offers coffee, bakes, frozen yoghurts and many more. The restaurant also offers 50% Swedish specialties like salmon, and chicken and vegetarian meatballs, and 50% local delicacies like samosas, dal makhni and biriyani.