KUALA LUMPUR: An overseas frozen foods manufacturer is investigating claims that one of its products sold here in Malaysia has been contaminated with alleged "animal droppings".
This follows a Reddit picture post showing a piece of frozen potato popcorn contaminated with what the poster captioned as: "Don't buy from this brand guys, this isn't mould."
The manufacturer, in response to an email from the New Straits Times, confirmed that they have been made aware of the matter and will investigate it further.
"We have been made aware of this post on Reddit and are in the process of responding to the account owner of this post," they said.
They added that the account owner, flurrie404, has reached out to them separately.
"We will conduct an investigation regarding this matter and take necessary action."
The manufacturer is based overseas and exports its products worldwide, including Malaysia, through a leading frozen foods distributor in Asia.
It said it follows world standard quality protocols and has approvals from various global quality accreditation organisations.
"We would like to assure you of a full and complete redressal of consumer issues," they told the NST.
Reddit user flurrie404 shared five pictures that included the packaging of the frozen food in a post that was uploaded online several days ago.
The post has since caught the attention of other Reddit users who have flooded the comments section expressing their disgust and advising the poster to take action against the distributor of the imported product.
User doomed151 said: "Report to KKM (Health Ministry) please. The importer/distributor will surely get sued."
According to flurrie404 in their reply, an email has been sent with "the above images."
Based on a reply to a comment saying "that's worse (than mould), it's rat poop", the poster claims that they had "eaten from this pack."
Another user, Inor-chu, suggested the complainant to "make it viral instead", as that would get authorities to respond sooner.
"Bro, please make it viral instead. This is Malaysia, a single email won't move the authorities fast enough," the comment read.
Many other comments seemed to suggest that the contaminants were rat droppings, with one comment telling the poster to "go to the hospital just in case."
"Yup not mould, it's poop, either rat or cicak (house gecko) maybe," a user claimed.
"This isn't mould *expletive*? It's something worse?" one user pointed out.
The reply it received: "It's doo doo baby."
The New Straits Times has reached out to the Reddit account owner, the product manufacturer and the Health Ministry.
User flurrie404 told the NST that the Health Ministry has replied to their email saying that it will launch an investigation into the matter.