Insect Found in Gardenia Bread

“So Good You Can Even Eat It On Its Own”. This is Gardenia’s tagline. Known for their healthy-licious bread, the company boasts of their product’s great taste, softness, freshness, and aroma. A total wholesome goodness in a pack! Until this was questioned today by one of its consumers…

July 6, 2014, a public post of Wilonah Chan surfaced the internet and immediately reached its way to other people’s timelines. Entitled “An Open Letter To Gardenia”, Chan claimed to see an “unknown insect embedded in one of the slices” of the bread. She also went on to say that she is more than willing to show Gardenia the photos of the bread slice. But since she cannot find any email info, that’s when she decided to create a Facebook post to complain about the matter and for the awareness of other consumers as well. Here’s the full account of Chan’s letter:

“An Open Letter To Gardenia
ATTN: Gardenia Philippines

I’m a loyal consumer of your product for so many years already and I love your loaf bread, really. However, I would like to express my DISGUST when I saw this unknown insect embedded in one of the slices. I am providing photos as proof that this have happened inside your factory, there is no way that I planted this and I have no reason to do that. All I want is to enjoy my breakfast. Honestly, I’m devastated that I might have eaten the other half of the insect’s wings because it’s obviously cut by the machine together with the bread.

Back in college, we went to your production plant as part of our field trip. I was amazed knowing that you are ISO certified as well. I can’t believe that your QA overlooked this. I’ve been trying to call your hotline but maybe you relied on your operator system too much or probably because it’s a Sunday and no one’s in the office today.

I am more than willing to send you this particular slice of bread so you could see for yourself. I cannot find any email address to send you photos in better quality than this photo collage. I just used iPhone BTW, but I did my best to take clear shots.

I am writing this to also share awareness to other consumers that by any chance they experience the same incident, they might want to speak up as well. I know this might cause a bad publicity to your brand but such customer complaint will surely improve the business itself.

And to everyone who’s reading this right now, some of you will surely bash me for this but it really won’t help. It was NOT YOU who ALMOST ate an insect for breakfast. I’m just disappointed, thank you for your utmost understanding.

Sincerely,
Wilonah Chan”

In a matter of hours, the post garnered 719 shares, 967 likes, and 400+ comments (as of writing).

Jeanne Mallari: “As far as I know fully mechanical yung factory. Pa check ng batch alam ko may tracking yan e tapos need nila I pull out lahat ng batch production nyan to test a microbiological analysis in one of that batch. Baka fault in packaging and machine yan.”

Erlee Arcy Willemsen: “The question is where did you buy that loaf Ms. Wilonah? May be the store where you bought it from is to blame.”

Wilonah Chan: “Erlee – Gardenia asked the same question and I told them that it was bought from CAREWELL.  Well, I doubt about that, not unless pinagbububuksan nila lahat ng Gardenia bago i-display.”

Clara Frances Jimenez: “I agree with ms trisha.. I believe in championing consumer rights but there’s a proper place and method of of complaint.”

Wilonah Chan: “Clara I tried contacting them personally but no luck, when I posted it sila pa lumapit bigla.”

Jenny De Guzman: “Some people may not see this helpful. But if the person who posted this felt that this can help him, then who are we to judge by what he feels is the right thing to do. Ipagpasalamat na lang natin na hindi ito nangyari sa atin. We could’ve remained quiet, done the same thing, or did something more than just this. Either way, however the person feels is his right is his business and sya pa rin ang magdedecide how to share this to others for awareness and to call the Gardenia’s attention. Anyway, he said he tried to contact the company, if nothing worked maybe this was what he feels may help him”

Wilonah was immediately contacted by Gardenia Philippines through Twitter. “I received a call from them already, they’re gonna go to my place soon to retrieve the slice of bread that has an insect on it for investigation and to replace it with a new loaf of bread. Super nice naman kausap and they also provided the email address that I’m asking for so I already sent the individual photos to them”.

According to Chan, “Anyone in the food industry would also go for consumer awareness, by the way. Basta kami ng Gardenia, okay kami.“

She also has a message to her bashers and to those people who think that she is just doing this for fame. “For the record, once and for all, I did not post that open letter for FAME. That’s for consumer awareness at dahil din dyan kaya ako na-contact ng Gardenia because I tried to call them before posting it but no luck…..sino bang gustong sumikat through an insect on a bread?”

Will she buy another Gardenia product again?

She answered,  “Yup, would still buy Gardenia.“

To be fair with this issue, we sent a private message to Gardenia Philippines via their FB page, and this was their statement:

Reference:

• An Open Letter To Gardenia;https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=672691372814616&set=a.107809899302769.16860.100002212797825&type=1&ref=nf
• Message to bashers;https://www.facebook.com/wilonah/posts/672889109461509
• Consumer awareness post;https://www.facebook.com/wilonah/posts/672842156132871
• Gardenia response;https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=672810319469388&set=a.348990781851345.84225.100002212797825&type=1