"'I Thought It Was Jelly, So I Chewed' Franchise Ice Cream Contains Over 2cm of 'Squishy' Foreign Substance Found"

The Same Accident Repeated in the Past

A consumer report revealed that a large piece of rubber was found in ice cream from a famous franchise, according to Yonhap News on the 6th. It was also reported that despite repeated occurrences of the same incident, the company has not taken any significant corrective actions.

Rubber found in ice cream.
Photo by Yonhap News

Mr. A, who lives in Seoul, felt a soft texture near the end of eating ice cream from Company B on the 8th of last month. He initially thought it was a new flavor of jelly, but it was not chewable. After spitting it out, he confirmed it was not jelly but a white piece of rubber. The foreign object was over 2 cm long.

Mr. A immediately complained to Company B's store and customer center. The investigation revealed that the foreign object did not enter during the manufacturing process at headquarters but during the sales process. It was a piece of rubber attached to the edge of the frame that secures the ice cream container in the store. It is presumed that the loosened rubber fell into the ice cream container, and the store staff unknowingly scooped and sold the ice cream. Such incidents are known to occur about one or two times annually across all Company B stores nationwide.

Mr. A told the media, "Even if it was a store mistake, it should never have happened, and the headquarters' response was complacent. As a parent raising children, I reported this for public food safety. If the rubber had been slightly smaller, it might have been swallowed." He added, "The company seemed to downplay responsibility, was hard to contact, and showed no sincere apology."

The headquarters explained, "A rubber piece used to prevent the ice cream container from slipping when scooping ice cream at frontline stores got mixed in. This is not a manufacturing issue but occurred during distribution." Regarding aftercare, they claimed, "The franchise owner and headquarters staff met the customer directly to apologize and provided compensation options as a gesture of consolation." They promised to re-examine the product delivery process and strengthen store training to prevent recurrence.

Nuts Found in Ice Cream from Major Corporation

Photo by JTBC, screenshot from the broadcast of 'Sageon Banjang'

Recently, there was also an incident where a nut was found in ice cream from a well-known major corporation. The whistleblower of the incident said, "The metal nut appeared to be about 2 cm long. The nut, covered in ice cream, looked like chocolate at first glance," adding, "If swallowed, it could have caused choking and posed a serious risk." The company that produced this product explained, "This product is manufactured by an outsourced company," and "There seems to have been an issue during the process."