Taiwanese govt to help press charges on IKEA over tainted ice cream

Taichung City Consumer Protection Committee (CPC) official Kang Hsin-jen yesterday said that the CPC will assist consumers in pressing charges against IKEA's Taichung branch, in order to claim compensation for the harm done to their health after consuming the company's ice cream made with expired raw ingredients.

Kang said that the Taichung Department of Health discovered that the local IKEA branch sold ice cream made with expired ingredients on Oct. 19, hurting consumers' health.

After negotiating with CPC officials, IKEA agreed to fully refund customers who had bought the product on that day, paying customers the price of the ice cream and compensating them three times the amount on top of that.

Kang said that IKEA refused to compensate consumers the NT$500 (S$21) to NT$30,000 compensation in line with the Act Governing Food Safety and Sanitation.

Kang added that by making ice cream and selling the product, IKEA is named as the products' manufacturer and is responsible for compensating consumers when making blunders, according to Consumer Protection Law.

Kang said that discovering that IKEA's product was made with expired ingredients is not an isolated incident, as the CPC received a report about the ice cream on Oct. 17 and discovered the firm was selling the product in question on Oct. 19.

Kang added that Matsusei market, another supermarket selling expired products, agreed to refund three times the original product price as well as the NT$500 damage compensation fee.

According to Kang, if more than 20 consumers report a certain firm, then the CPC may assist the consumers to press charges against the firm.