Dear Claudienne

On Sunday September 26, my husband bought a 4.4 ounce bottle of Maggi’s fish seasoning at the New Stony Hill supermarket in Stony Hill. The expiry date on it was 02/2011 and the batch code was 10036110. He used it to season pork that he cooked for dinner on Tuesday October 5. When we were eating I noticed weevils in the meal. I looked at the bottle of fish seasoning and noticed the weevils crawling around in the bottle.

The following day, Wednesday October 6, I called Nestle and a consumer adviser told me that the two options were for them to compensate me for the cost of the item or to give me three sachets.

I do not believe that would be adequate compensation seeing that we were using it before the expiry date.

Could I sue them? What do you think?

KB

Dear KB

The Consumer Affairs Commission (CAC) was of the view that where the contamination took place would first have to be established.

They also felt that it would be difficult for you to sue since no member of your family had fell ill as a result of eating the meal. A suit could not be brought against the company on the basis of a potential illness, the CAC argued.

Tell Claudienne contacted the supermarket on October 6 and the manager told us that he had no quantities of the fish seasoning in storage. Due to the depressed state of the economy he bought just enough stock to sell. The one case of 24 bottles of Maggi’s fish seasoning that he bought were all put on the shelf, he said.

The manager called Nestle and advised us that on the afternoon of October 6, the company came and took all the bottles of fish seasoning from the shelf.

We also spoke to Nestle’s Consumer Relationship Marketing Manager who told us that you had called them. She said that your husband had submitted a sample from the bottle of fish seasoning.

Nestle has advised us that their investigations have confirmed that weevils were indeed in the fish seasoning your husband bought.

“We determined that the problem is isolated to a residual lot of product which we had found to be infested due to one of the raw materials used. These products were blocked, but a few escaped our detection and were inadvertently released to the trade. Since the complaint we have removed the affected jars from the market.

“The quality of our products is of paramount importance and our manufacturing procedures are designed to prevent any contamination of our products. Nevertheless, we have since reinforced our storage and manufacturing procedures and have put stricter controls in place with regards to our raw materials’ suppliers to prevent any possibility of such a recurrence,” Nestle´said.

We note that your husband went to see the Consumer Relationship Marketing Manager on Thursday and that she apologised and presented him with a gift basket.

Good luck.

Barry Smith, Please call me

Dear Mr Barry W Smith

Please phone Tell Claudienne. We received your letter but we need more details. You also did not state your father’s name.

Have a problem with a store, utility, a company? Telephone 936-9436 or write to: Tell Claudienne c/o Sunday Finance, Jamaica Observer, 40-42 1/2 Beechwood Avenue, Kingston 5; or e-mail: edwardsc@jamaicaobserver.com. Please include a contact phone number.