The high-calcium strawberry cream roll cake (left) and the high-calcium domestic wheat chocolate banana bread (right) are manufactured by Mother Goose and distributed and sold by Foodmuss. /Courtesy of Pulmuone

Food distribution company Foodmus, part of the Pulmuone group, issued an apology on the 20th regarding the food poisoning incident related to the bread products supplied to meal service establishments. This is the official apology that comes about two weeks after the issue surfaced. The Ministry of Food and Drug Safety halted sales of the problematic products and initiated a recall on the 5th, while the Korea Disease Control and Prevention Agency confirmed on the 13th that cases of salmonella infections from consuming bread products had been reported.

Cheon Young-hoon, CEO of Foodmus, stated on the company's website that, "Since the products were supplied to certain meal service establishments, there should have been thorough hygiene and quality control according to stricter standards, yet we acknowledge there were shortcomings in food safety management."

Recently, multiple cases of food poisoning due to salmonella infection occurred in several regions nationwide, including Chungcheongbuk-do, Sejong, and Buan in Jeollabuk-do, after consuming the affected products. The problematic products were confirmed to have been produced by Mother Goose, a food manufacturing company located in Anyang, Gyeonggi-do, and distributed and sold by Foodmus.

CEO Cheon noted, "We take on the moral and management responsibility for this matter heavily, and we are doing our best to support the victims' swift recovery and return to their daily lives, including compensation for damages such as medical expenses."

He added, "As specific execution measures for preventing recurrence, we will double the specialized personnel for food poisoning prevention management and introduce new real-time salmonella diagnosis technologies and advanced testing equipment," and stated, "We also plan to establish and operate a 'Food Hygiene and Safety Advisory Committee' composed of external food safety experts from industry, academia, and research."

Foodmus stated that they halted product supply immediately upon recognizing the issue. They also voluntarily recalled all products supplied to meal service establishments and disposed of them. Additionally, they proactively suspended supply of other products produced at the facility.