Dubai: A Dubai woman who bought a ready brownie cake mix from a supermarket in Umm Sequim said she was shocked to find the sealed packet had creepy bugs and maggots inside.
Sandhya Prakash, resident of the area and founder of the Middle East Vegetarian Group (MEVeg), said she purchased a well-known American brand’s brownie mix from the supermarket on August 4 as she wanted to bake brownies in a solar oven.
“But when I yanked the sealed packet open at home, I was horrified to see these eerie creatures inside,” said Prakash, adding that some of them looked like bugs and some others like maggots.
Prompt action
She said she checked the expiry date on the packet and found that it was good to be consumed till October 2016.
Prakash, who then contacted Dubai Municipality on their hotline to lodge a complaint, said, “I received an immediate acknowledgement. As it emerges, Dubai Municipality promptly acted on the complaint. I was later informed that ‘my notification on the decayed food’ was looked into and four other packets of the same mix were subsequently removed from the supermarket shelves.”
XPRESS queries to the Dubai Municipality and the supermarket did not get an immediate response.
Prakash said she was thankful she had noticed the maggots before pouring water into the mix. “One needs to be very cautious while using food stuffs. It is not the supermarket’s fault that these packets contained bugs because they were sealed and were being sold well within the expiry date.”
According to experts, it is not uncommon to find mealy bugs and larvae of moths and beetles inside boxes of flour, sugar and cake mixes as they feed on starch. After feeding on the starch, the larvae leave the food clumpy.
