Company regrets recalled sugar, apologises

Frankie’s Wholesale has acknowledged its responsibility, and apologised to customers over the sale of bags of sugar from the Ascent Group in India, which the Ministry of Health has recalled saying “they are not fit for human consumption.”

“We regret and apologise for what has happened and assure customers that we (are) doing our best to ensure this does not happen again,” the company said in a statement. The Samoa Observer had contacted Frankie’s following claims made online, prior to the recall notice signed by the Director General of Health, Leausa Dr. Take Naseri, on Monday.

“Any customer has a right to make complaints about our shop’s products, service etc,” the company said. “This was an unfortunate case and does reflect on the reputation the company enjoys that has been developed over nearly 20 years of trading in Samoa.

“These sorts of complaints make us want to “do better” We want our customers to know this and we will make sure that our reputation is restored.”

The recalled bags of sugar come from India, weighing 50kgs and with the production date March 2020 and the expiry date being February 2022. Supplied to Samoa by the Ascent Group, the manufacturer was identified as Vitthalrao Shinde SSK Ltd.

According to the statement from Frankie’s, they take the matter very seriously.

“We obviously would never import any goods if we are aware they were not fit for human consumption.  I don’t think any company would. A health cert was also provided in all our sugar shipments making sure this pass export requirements.”

The company also acknowledged that “sugar that was of poor quality should never have been sold.”

“This episode has highlighted a problem we have (with) our supplier. Our supplier is clearly responsible but Frankie accepts that he has to make good for any loss. All stock has been recalled from shops and consumers and compensation given to these customers.”

The company also confirmed that it received 10 containers but at least 2 containers had the bad stock.

“Our company is a major importer of a wide variety of products from many companies throughout the world. We make every effort to deal with well established companies that have well established reputations for quality and reliability of supply. Price is also a consideration,” the statement continues.

“Realistically it is impossible for us to verify every single item that we import as goods are imported in containers and it is not possible to check each item until they are unloaded.

“We have to accept safety standards imposed by our suppliers and their own reputations. We would obviously never import goods that we know to be faulty in any way. We regret the problem with sugar but only became aware when the customer made it known.”

In moving forward, the company also assured that they would review their suppliers to ensure they bring better products.

“We will review our own internal processes to better identify potential faulty products.”