In January, a small bit of red plastic was found in a German customer’s Snickers bar. After some investigation by Mars, the maker of Snickers, it was concluded that the incriminating piece of candy was produced in Mars’ factory in the Netherlands. The plastic originated from a protective cover used in the manufacturing process of the factory, located in the town of Veghel.
While Mars believes that it is an isolated incident and that it’s unlikely that the plastic got into any other candy bars, officials at the company still decided that, in case of other incidents, it was safest to call back all candy recently produced from the factory. Specifically this means candy manufactured from December 5, 2015 to January 18, 2016. Unfortunately for Mars and its consumers, this particular factory supplies candy to the majority of Europe.
Affected candies include Snickers (the original culprit), Mars Bars, Milky Ways, and Celebrations. The recall spans 55 countries, including the UK, Sri Lanka, and Vietnam. While Mars has not explicitly stated the scale or cost of the recall efforts, this may cost up to millions of dollars. Furthermore, consumer analysts fear that the incident will cause some damage to Mars’ reputation for a time, due to consumers warily avoiding their products.
The food giant, that has approximately 12% of the chocolate market in Europe, does specify that the recall only pertains to packages labeled “Mars Netherlands,” and that other products are safe, and meet standards for quality. The plastic contamination in that singular Snickers bar is also notably less severe than other recent production scandals in Europe. For example, the Cadbury recall of 2007 came as a result of a serious public health concern due to salmonella contamination that infected several people, sending three to hospital. Mars’ incident also contains very little malicious intent compared to other industrial scandals including that of the horsemeat scandal or even the VW recall for intentionally defective emissions test sensors.
While the incident is unfortunate, Mars’ handling of it can be considered commendable, and helps to maintain public trust in the quality assurance and control measures used during their manufacturing processes. It’s a bit of a shame though – so much chocolate. The incident, the first one experienced by the Veghel plant since it opened in 1963, shouldn’t put too much of a dent in the company’s sales, which also include favourites such as M&M’s, 3 Musketeers, and Twix.
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