KUALA LUMPUR, March 10 — A company recently accused of selling pig intestines posing as frozen squid rings has reportedly decided to take legal action against its accusers, and urged authorities to look into the matter.
New Straits Times yesterday quoted Shen Hua Resources chief executive officer Rodney Soon as saying that the post has damaged the company’s reputation and sales in five states across the country — Perlis, Kedah, Penang, Selangor and Putrajaya.
“After discussing with our lawyer, we will take action against the two netizens who spread the fake news,” Soon said at a press conference yesterday that was held to clear the company’s name.
He also reportedly said that the Islamic Development Department Malaysia (Jakim) and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry had taken samples of the product five days beforehand, but have yet to reveal the result of their investigations thus far.
“Jakim and the Domestic Trade and Consumer Affairs Ministry have started to investigate the allegations in five states by collecting a few boxes of samples (of squid rings) from Kedah and Selangor.
“The related authorities took eight boxes of samples from Kedah at 10.30am on March 5 and six boxes of samples from Selangor at 11am on March 7 for testing. Until today, the results are still not out,” he was quoted as saying.
Soon said he was dissatisfied with the two authorities’ performance, with the lack of a conclusive lab test result meaning it was impossible for his company to refute the allegations.
He was also quoted as saying that a police report has been made against the netizens, amd urged urging the Communications and Multimedia Ministry to investigate the matter under the Communications and Multimedia Act 1998.
The chief representative in Malaysia of Shandong Halal Certification Services — which assisted Shen Hua in receiving Jakim-approved Halal certification — Datuk Abd Aziz Jamaluddin, who was also at the press conference, reportedly vouched for the product and said that the matter could be easily resolved with a lab test.
Last week, a post spread on social media alleging that the frozen squid rings sold by a company were actually pork intestines — justifying its allegation by saying that if it was squid rings, it would have spots on it, unlike the products in an attached image.
