In a major embarrassment for Swedish firm IKEA, a customer put a picture on Twitter of a vegetable biryani served to him with a caterpillar in it at the Hyderabad chain's restaurant.
Following the incident, the customer, identified as Abeed Mohammad, alerted the Greater Hyderabad Municipal Corporation's Food Safety Department, which levied a fine of Rs 11,500 on the firm.
The GHMC has issued a notice to the IKEA restaurant manager and also to Haldirams, the Nagpur vendor from which it procures food items.
According to the Indian Express, On Saturday, GHMC officials reportedly visited the store and collected food samples for bacteriological analysis tests at a lab.
An IKEA spokesperson was quoted by The News Minutes as saying, “We regret the incident and apologise to our customer for the unfortunate experience. We would like to assure him and everyone else that we are investigating the matter currently to assess what happened and take immediate corrective action. At IKEA, we have the strictest guidelines when it comes to food safety and quality as customer health and safety are something we care about deeply.”
