Telma, which is owned by Unilever, has issued an apology to consumers in the form of ads in Sunday morning newspapers. The company is now feeling the impact of its mishandling of contaminated breakfast cereals. Telma was quick to downplay the reports, insisting its line of breakfast cereals is safe as the company places the consumer above all else. l

Following mounting pressure, Telma finally admitted to salmonella infection http://www.theyeshivaworld.com/news/headlines-breaking-stories/447706/telma-reveals-contamination-was-more-serious-than-just-cornflakes.html in some of its products, which led to the Ministry of Health becoming involved. The ministry is now probing if the chain of events is the result of negligence or intentional foul play.

A few hundred boxes of contaminated cereal have already been found on store shelves, 240 to be exact, in the Petach Tikvah area, as company officials insist they are probing just how this occurred. A total of 154,320 boxes were infected with salmonella. Telma insists the contaminated runs were eliminated. However, it has now been learned an employee placed barcoding from good boxes over the contaminated boxes. It has yet to be determined if the worker acted on his own or if this was an intentional company effort to dupe the consumer.

In the interim, Telma brand sales continue to drop as stores are thinking about totally removing Telma cereals from their shelves for the time being. Shufersal reports that 3,000 boxes of Telma cereals were returned last week and that number is likely to grow this week. Health Minister Yaakov Litzman has ordered an in-depth probe, telling Israel Radio if necessary, a closure ordered will be issued to shut the production down entirely.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)