[Courtesy of Lotte Confectionary]
After repeated reports of “White Cookie Pepero”, packs of chocolate covered cookie sticks, gone bad, its manufacturer Lotte Confectionary, started recall process for the choc cookies, Wednesday.
The products which are on the list for recalls are “White Cookie Pepero” and “Ghana Chocolate Bar Almond”. According to the industry, Lotte recalled 140,000 boxes of Pepero out of 290,000 boxes which were made during June to October. 50,000 boxes were sold already and Lotte is making refunds to the consumers who bought the product.
A person from the industry estimated the Pepero being recalled is worth 6.7 billion won (U.S$ 5.8 million)
An insider from Lotte explained why the situation broke out. “While trying to prepare huge numbers of Pepero for the ‘Pepero Day’, some of the paper boxes containing the cookies weren’t completely dried before shipping,” He said.
“The smell of ink had smeared into the cookies resulting bad smell. But there are no harmful substances added to the product during its process.”
Pepero Day is a celebration day on November 11. The lettering of the date “11.11” resembles the Pepero. Koreans, mostly young people hand out Pepero to their friends as a sign of friendship or to confess love to one another.
Lotte is also recalling 500 boxes of Ghana Chocolate Bars which were produced on October 30. It was also reported of its bad smell. The insider said, “Chocolate bars were next to the Peperos when in production. The bad smell from Pepero must have smeared into the chocolate bars as well.”
아주경제 박세진 기자 = swatchsjp@ajunews.com
reporter
Park Sae-jin
swatchsjp@ajunews.com
