KUALA LUMPUR, June 3 — Vindicated over claims of porcine contamination in two of its chocolates, Cadbury Malaysia today thanked authorities for taking steps to avoid false alarms such as the current scare that led to a boycott of its products.
The company, which has been making and selling chocolates for over 40 years, stressed that it has “believed all along” its chocolates are halal for Muslims.
“While incidents such as this are unfortunate, we are grateful to the relevant authorities for clearing up the air and ensuring that future abnormalities in their test results would be verified internally before making them public,” said Mondelez Malaysia’s managing director Sunil Sethi.
“We understand the importance of ensuring that the cultural and religious interests of all Malaysians are met. Muslims make up the majority of the population in Malaysia, which is why halal is and always will be our non-negotiable top priority,” he said.
The Malaysian Islamic Development Department (Jakim) said yesterday no pig DNA was found in 11 samples of the confectionary giant’s Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and the Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond were sent to a special accredited laboratory for testing.
On May 24, the Health Ministry announced that it detected porcine DNA contamination in samples of the two products already out in the market, sparking an uproar among Muslim groups.
Jakim pointed out the Health Ministry’s samples were not taken directly from Cadbury’s factory, suggesting that this resulted in possible contamination and flawed test results.
The Health Ministry is now on the hunt for the party who leaked a preliminary report on the chocolates, which Deputy Minister Datuk Seri Dr Hilmi Yahya said was released prematurely before the findings could be corroborated.
