Dubai: American chocolate giant Mars has recalled Mars and Snickers from the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and also the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
“Mars Gulf, including the UAE, Kuwait, Qatar, Bahrain and Oman markets, have decided to take a precautionary recall of a selection of Snickers [Miniatures], Mars [Minis and Miniatures] and Best of Our Minis products produced in The Netherlands after finding a piece of red plastic in one of Snickers bar purchased in Germany,” the company said in a statement issued in Dubai.
“This is an isolated case related to some products manufactured in the Netherlands. The majority of the products sold in the GCC region, including Mars and Snickers bars, are manufactured in our factory in Jebel Ali in the UAE. All of these locally manufactured products are not affected by this incident,” Acting General Manager of Mars Gulf Ahmad Helaly, said.
The announcement came after a customer in Germany found a piece of red plastic in a Snickers bar, sources claimed. In this wake, millions of chocolate products from the company were deemed possibly unsafe for consumption in 55 countries.
“As far as we know there are 55 countries involved,” Eline Bijveld, Mars corporate affairs coordinator for the Netherlands told a news agency. According to Bijveld, about four million items were being recalled in The Netherlands alone.
“This is a voluntary measure taken by Mars to avoid any possibility of health hazards that may be caused by the presence of pieces of plastics,” the UAE branch of the company stated.
“Mars Gulf would like to reassure that this precautionary measure is driven by our belief that our consumer safety is our first priority and we will take all the necessary measures to protect the safety of our consumers. We advise consumers who have purchased any of these with the above mentioned expiry dates and manufactured in The Netherlands not to consume the product and to contact the Mars Consumer Care representative on the following email address info@mars-me.com,” it said.
“Mars Gulf would like to apologise for any inconvenience caused to our consumers by this incident,” the statement added.
