Foreign Particles Found in Beverage
Identified as Plastic Bag Shredded by Blender
Advised to Seek Medical Treatment but Changed Story
Attitude Shift After Reports to MFDS and Media
According to a report by Yonhap News on the 25th, teenage children who consumed drinks from the low-cost coffee chain 'Paik's Coffee,' operated by Baek Jong-won, CEO of The Born Korea, complained of stomach pain after plastic bags were ground into the beverages.
According to Yonhap News, informant A took his 16-year-old daughter and 12-year-old son to a Paik's Coffee store in Jeonbuk on the 7th and ordered three drinks, including Cookie Crunch Paik's Chino. However, when the children had consumed about 80% of the Cookie Crunch Paik's Chino, which is made by grinding chocolate cookies, they found a rough and hard-to-chew foreign substance in the drink.
A turned the car around and went back to Paik's Coffee to show the store owner the remaining drink and the foreign substance spat out by the children. Upon inspection, the foreign substance was found to be a plastic bag from the chocolate cookies used in the drink. Due to an employee's mistake, the snack bag was ground together with other ingredients in the blender. It is known that there were enough plastic pieces in the drink to be visible to the naked eye.
The store owner told A that if there were any health issues, they should seek medical treatment and provide the receipt, and the cost would be covered by insurance. A's daughter and son began experiencing gas in their stomachs from the next day, and on the 9th, they developed a slight fever and abdominal pain, leading to hospitalization at a children's hospital. However, due to a shortage of hospital rooms, one child was admitted to a special room for three days, resulting in medical expenses of about 1 million won.
Coffee specialty brand Paik's Coffee [Photo by The Born Korea]
The problem escalated from this point. The store owner informed that the special room hospitalization fee could not be covered by insurance and that support was difficult, and communication with A was reportedly poor. A claimed that the Paik's Coffee headquarters representative also called to express apologies but was more focused on covering up the incident without clearly mentioning compensation measures.
Angered, A reported the incident to the Iksan City Health Department and the Ministry of Food and Drug Safety and also informed the media. He said, "After the problem occurred, they told us to get treatment, so we went to the hospital. We didn't need compensation money, just the medical expenses covered, but the response from the Paik's Coffee store owner and headquarters was very irresponsible and seemed to disregard the customer," expressing his anger.
When Iksan City conducted an on-site investigation and reviewed the closed-circuit television (CCTV) installed in the store's kitchen, it was confirmed that the plastic bag was ground into the drink due to the negligence of the store owner and staff. The store is expected to receive an administrative order for corrective action.
As the situation worsened, Paik's Coffee showed a changed attitude. The store owner called A and offered to cover the special room fee. The headquarters issued an official statement saying, "We apologize once again for causing concern to our customers due to foreign substances, regardless of the reason," and added, "However, due to a shortage of hospital rooms, the customer's hospitalization was assigned to a special room, and the insurance adjuster informed that insurance coverage was difficult in principle. Nevertheless, the store owner has taken heavy responsibility for this matter and agreed to cover all special room hospitalization fees through insurance."
Meanwhile, Paik's Coffee, which promotes itself as a 'low-cost coffee' brand, has rapidly grown as demand for cost-effective coffee has surged amid high inflation. In particular, one-third of The Born Korea's sales come from the low-cost coffee brand Paik's Coffee. The prominence of Paik's Coffee within The Born Korea is also evident in the number of stores. As of the end of June this year, Paik's Coffee had 1,594 stores, the highest among The Born Korea brands. The number increased by 873 over three and a half years from 721 stores in early 2021. Only three stores are directly operated, with the rest being franchises.
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