Singapore customer complains about finding bees in bamboo bee plum tea
On Friday (15 Nov), a customer took to Facebook to share his displeasure with a tonic purchase.
The customer had bought bamboo bee plum tea from a local tonic store, not knowing that actual bees are included in the product.
Based on the packaging, the product appears to be from Hockhua Tonic — a popular traditional medicine store in Singapore.
The customer was enraged upon realising there were real bees in the box and claimed they felt unwell after consuming the product.
Source: Facebook
Customer did not expect real insects in product
In the Facebook post, the customer suggested that the packaging did not clearly state that insects were included in the product:
How would I know that a bee plum is actually a real bee? To me bee plum is a plum that looks like a bee- if there are insects within it should be properly stated.
The customer allegedly “felt sick” after consuming the product.
He claimed that he subsequently visited the Singapore Food Agency (SFA) website to check if it had granted the tonic store a “certificate of approval” but failed to find one.
The customer did not specify the nature of the approval they expected the tonic store to have.
Source: Facebook
Angered by his findings, the customer reached out to the tonic store to express his grievances.
However, the tonic store allegedly replied that its offering is not unique and that other stores in the industry also have insects in similar products.
The response further aggravated the customer, prompting them to share their experiences on Facebook.
Consuming insects was against customer’s religion & belief
The customer — known as Nic — told MS News that he bought the product from Hougang Mall.
The 38-year-old explained that he had expected the product to contain “normal herbs” such as tree bark and not actual insects.
He also said staff at the store did not mention that the product contained bees.
Nic added that he felt “disgusted” after consuming the insects, adding it was against his religion and belief.
The customer described the tonic store’s response — in which it claimed other stores in the industry — as being “very childish”, comparing it to a “kindergarten kid giving a teacher excuses when they did wrong”.
Nic added that the product in question was no longer displayed on the store’s shelf when he visited on Saturday (16 Nov).
Tonic store says this is first such complaint in 20 years of selling bamboo bee plum
In response to MS News‘ queries, a Hockhua Tonic spokesperson said the company has sold the product for more than 20 years, adding that it is sold in other TCM medical halls in Singapore.
This is apparently reportedly the first time that the company received such feedback about bamboo bees.
The spokesperson added that bamboo bee is included in the ‘List of Chinese Medicinal Materials commonly used in food‘, established by the Singapore Food Agency and the Health Sciences Authority.
The herb goes by its Latin name ‘Xylocopa Dissimilis’ in the list.
Hockhua Tonic also claimed that bamboo bees are separately packed and displayed prominently on the front of the product.
The tonic store added that the bamboo bee is listed in the ingredient list and that there are illustrations of the herbs in the packaging.
Hockhua Tonic said it has replied to the customer via email. However, attempts to respond to the Facebook post were unsuccessful as comments were disabled.
Bamboo bee plum tea is a traditional herbal medicine, commonly used to soothe sore throats.
Consumers typically brew an appropriate amount of plum in hot water before consuming the drink.
Also read: SFA warns against consuming 7 drink products found to contain medicinal substances
SFA warns against consuming 7 drink products found to contain medicinal substances
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Featured image adapted from Facebook.
