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Pizza lovers unfazed by report of bad ingredients
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Noodle lovers queue at a Marugame restaurant in Jakarta in a 2013 file photo. (JP/Stevie Emilia)
P
izza lovers have expressed their shock over a media report claiming that the country’s most famous brand, Pizza Hut, uses expired ingredients in some of its products, but say they will continue to consume the world-famous pie.
“Nothing bad has happened to me from consuming it [Pizza Hut] until today. I get a stomach ache only if I eat too much pizza, more than my stomach can handle,” Pizza Hut lover Ambaranie Nadia told The Jakarta Post on Sunday, when asked about a report jointly published by Tempo weekly and the BBC, which found that fast-food restaurants Pizza Hut and Pizza Hut Delivery (PHD) had a company policy to extend the shelf life of a number of ingredients for their products, a move that violates the Food Law.
Another pizza fan, Anton, said he had not been discouraged from eating the pie and was convinced that Pizza Hut would take corrective measures.
The joint investigation, which was initiated by the BBC and kicked off in July, also found that Marugame Udon, which is run by the same company that holds the license for Pizza Hut in the country, also enacted the same policy.
The investigation found that there were around seven ingredients, the shelf lives of which had allegedly been extended by Pizza Hut, including puff pastry, veggie chicken sausage, XO sauce, brownie mix, carbonara sauce mix, sweet relish and citrus marinade.
PHD, meanwhile, also allegedly extended the shelf lives of vegetarian chicken sausage, puff pastry, carbonara sauce mix and satay sauce. They were all extended to one month after their expiration dates.
Marugame allegedly extended the shelf lives of bonito powder, hondashi, chicken skin, shrimp tempura, sukiyaki tare and tempura sauce. Tempo and BBC found in its investigation that Marugame had allegedly extended the shelf lives of the items by a month. It said that the shelf lives for the food materials were between three and six months.
In one Marugame Udon outlet, Tempo, however said it found evidence that the company extended the shelf life of bonito powder to one year.
Responding to the report, PT Sarimelati Kencana, which runs Pizza Hut operations, and Marugame Udon operator PT Sriboga Marugame Indonesia both denied allegations that they used expired food materials, emphasizing that they only used “high-quality food materials worthy of consumption”.
“Media reports stating Sarimelati Kencana, as the license holder of Pizza Hut, PHD and The Kitchen by Pizza Hut in Indonesia, uses expired products are inaccurate,” the company said in a statement. Sarimelati Kencana has been recognized since 2005 by Pizza Hut global franchisor Yum! Brands as having a “world- class operation”.
In a press briefing on Sunday, Sarimelati Kencana president director Stephen McCarthy said the company never compromised with food safety. “As a company we seek profit but we never make profits by compromising food safety,” he said.
The 32-year-old company currently operates 326 restaurants nationwide and employs around 13,000 workers, benefiting from the booming middle-income segment in Southeast Asia’s largest economy that has become a boon to the food and beverage industry.
Meanwhile, Sriboga Marugame Indonesia, which runs 26 Marugame Udon outlets in big cities, from Medan to Bali, said the allegations were “not true at all”.
“We guarantee that we apply a strict procurement process for all materials used in the food we serve, in line with the food security management principles upheld by our international principal, Japan’s Toridoll Corp.,” Sriboga Marugame wrote in a statement.
Both Sarimelati Kencana and Sriboga Marugame operate under the Sriboga Raturaya group, which has evolved from a wheat flour manufacturer into a food ingredients industry player and international restaurant franchisee. (est)
