Ice-cream parlor under fire
(eastday.com)
Updated: 2005-06-20 10:05

Local ice-cream aficionados were shocked to learned the quality scandal of Haagen-Dazs that erupted in Shenzhen on Saturday, and the company officials in the city were not available for comment last Sunday.

Shenzhen officials confiscated the ice-cream cakes produced by the unlicensed kitchen.[photo/beelink.com]

Top officials from General Mills China, which is headquartered in Shanghai, have flown to Shenzhen to look into reports that Haagen-Dazs products were made in a tiny, unlicensed kitchen.

Last thursday, quality authorities in Shenzhen, Guangdong Province, received a tip that Haagen-Dazs ice-cream cakes were being processed in a small apartment in Zhenhua Mansion, Luohu District, the Shenzhen Evening News reported.

Officials at first suspected it was an unauthorized, underground factory producing fake Haagen-Dazs cakes, but were later surprised when Haagen-Dazs officials confirmed it was their kitchen.

The kitchen, which isn't licensed for food processing, supplied all five Haagen-Dazs outlets in Shenzhen.

Haagen-Dazs Shenzhen said the kitchen previously served an outlet on the first floor of the mansion. The outlet moved in April, but the kitchen remained.

Shenzhen government confiscated and destroyed 75 kilograms of ice-cream cakes, and all Haagen-Dazs outlets in the city stopped selling the cakes. No fines or other administrative punishments have been issued so far.

Shenzhen newspapers reported that business at the upscale ice-cream parlor has been hit hard, and some residents said they are outraged by the news, accusing the company of being irresponsible and not caring about consumers' health.

The company has issued a statement in Shenzhen, apologizing to local consumers for its mistakes and promising to fix the problems immediately.

An employee at the company's Westgate Mall outlet on downtown Shanghai's Nanjing Road W. said the company is expected to issue a statement today.

He claimed business in his parlor has not been affected by the scandal. But local consumers were all eager to hear from the company top officials about hygienic conditions and quality control procedures in the expensive ice-cream kitchen in Shanghai.

Haagen-Dazs has set up 48 outlets on the Chinese mainland, of which 21 are located in Shanghai. Numerous supermarkets and convenience stores also sell the company's ice-cream products.