BREADTALK TO GIVE OUT 50K PORK FLOSS BUNS, DONATE TO CHARITY OVER SOYA BEAN FIASCO

In a statement issued jointly with the Consumers Association of Singapore (CASE), local mega-bakery chain BreadTalk says that it has donated $50,000 to the Community Chest, signed a Voluntary Compliance Agreement (VCA) on 18th August, and will give away 50,000 of its famous pork floss buns over 3 weekends starting from 28th August (next weekend) - all in an effort to show that the company is apologetic for mislabeling their "freshly-made" soya milk for sale.

“By signing the VCA, BreadTalk has agreed that besides ceasing its practice of selling soya bean milk in the mis-labelled bottles, it will not engage in unfair practices going forward," the company said.

Earlier this month, one A.S.S. reader exposed a BreadTalk employees, who was photographed pouring pre-packaged Yeo's brand soya bean milk into bottles that were labelled “freshly prepared”. BreadTalk later pulled the bottles soya milk from its shelves and apologized to consumers.

“What we could have been clearer with is probably, labels,” its Group Senior Vice President said.

BreadTalk has admitted that it first started selling the pre-packaged soya bean milk as far back as 2014.

“Most of the BreadTalk stores selling soya bean milk were clearly marked with Yeo’s logo-branded dispensers. An operational oversight occurred whereby bottles that were intended to be used to pack fresh fruit juices and labelled ‘freshly prepared’ were wrongly used to pack the soya bean milk at the store level.”

The bakery chain admitted that this was a “management oversight” which it “views seriously”.

“BreadTalk strives to deliver quality products to our customers and adhere to the highest ethical standards. The trust of our customers is of utmost importance to us”, said Mr George Quek, Founder and Chairman, BreadTalk Group.

“With the recent soya bean milk incident, we fell short on this commitment. We sincerely apologise for the frustration and disappointment this has caused our customers recently. Fifteen years ago, I founded this company based on our Asian values of integrity and sincerity. We will continue to strive to attain these by closely listening to the community where we grew up in. Guided by these principles, BreadTalk will continue to improve and live up to the standards that the community has set for us,” Mr Quek added.

Mr Lim Biow Chuan, President of CASE and incumbent MP for Mountbatten says: “CASE is committed towards protecting consumers’ interest and promoting an environment of fair and ethical trade practices. We are glad that BreadTalk has been co-operative and has taken immediate action to prevent such future incidents."