On Monday, the Northern District branch of the Ministry of Health sent food service inspectors and a district doctor to conduct a surprise inspection at the Sunfrost factory. This came after numerous complaints were heard of consumers finding insects and snails, as well as parts of snakes, birds, and rats in packages of frozen green beans.
Sunfrost had initially tried to hide the problem and refused to issue a recall of their products.
During the inspection, the production and packaging processes, as well as documentation, at the factory were examined. There was an emphasis on measures taken to handle the possibility of the presence of foreign bodies in the products. Areas of improvement were identified throughout the process chain. Findings and recommendations will be forwarded to the plant in writing.
The Ministry of Health stated that the plant will be assisted by several experts for a re-examination of production, supervision, and quality assurance processes.
After they finally ordered a product recall on Saturday night, Sunfrost stated that it is stopping the marketing of all bean products to stores in the coming week. In addition, the company will collect all the green and yellow bean products from the stores, including those that are not part of the recall that began Monday.
Sunfrost apologized for the inconvenience and distress caused to customers, and explained that “the collection of all bean products is being done out of responsibility and commitment towards the customers, and not due to fear of a health risk."
Rami Levy, owner of the large supermarket chain in his name, told Radio 103FM that this could happen in any food plant. He added, "these product have been on our shelves for decades," and yet something like this has not happened for a long time.
Eyal Melis, CEO of the Tnuva Group that owns Sunfrost, added: "We apologize to consumers and take full responsibility. We are making a thorough re-evaluation of quality controls at the plant, with the help of experts from abroad. Based on professional opinion, we believe that there is no health risk to the public. We received the order from the Ministry of Health to carry out a recall last Friday, we announced it on Saturday, and we started carrying it out Sunday morning."
"We invite consumers who bought Sunfrost bean products to contact us and receive a double credit for the purchase of Sunfrost products. Customers are invited to contact Sunfrost's customer service hotline at 1-800-282-844 to receive the credit vouchers," added the CEO.