Coles customer's disturbing find after drinking probiotic
A Coles customer has called out the retailer for showing "no concern" after making a worrying discovery on a bottle of pro-biotic drink
The customer who shops at the Coles West Lakes in South Australia said he and his wife regularly purchase generic pro-biotic drink similar to Yakult from the store.
But one bottle in the last packet they purchased had a concerning detail which they discovered after drinking it.
Sharing his experience on the Coles Facebook page, the customer said the product had seemingly been tampered with after he discovered a hole cut in the side of the bottle.
“If you look closely you will see that a hole had been cut into the bottle,” he said alongside a picture of the bottle.
“My wife drank this not realising it had been tampered with, the plastic square fell out after she had drunk most of the contents.”
Coles drink complaint 'really important'
The customer said they didn’t want to “make a fuss” but decided to go back to the store they purchased the tampered product from to make sure staff were aware.
But when they asked to speak to the manager they showed “no interest” in the situation.
“We thought this was really important! We tried not to make a fuss, so we rang the store and were told to take it back and fill out a complaint form,” the customer explained.
“My wife asked to speak to the manager. He showed no interest nor did he care if she filled out the form.
“I thought that potential poisoning would have been important for Coles. Apparently, it doesn't matter, no concern shown at all!”
When questioned about how he knew the product was tampered with on his Facebook post the concerned customer went on to say that the hole was cut in a perfect square.
“There were other cut marks leading up to the square, it looked like a Stanley knife had been used,” he explained.
“They come in a pack of 5 the others weren't affected.”
Coles responds to concerns
A Coles spokesperson reached out to the customer to apologise, but said the product issue was something they couldn’t comment on.
“Thanks for bringing this to our attention,” the spokesperson said.
“We're sorry to see you encountered this issue with the Yakult Drink you purchased from our West Lakes store.
“As this is a non-Coles brand product, we are unable to comment on the quality of a product not made by us.”
The spokesperson went on to ask for photos of the barcode, best before date, and batch information on the packaging for Coles to keep on record.
However, in the photo of the pro-biotic bottle shared on Facebook, a Coles logo is clearly visible on the container.
Yahoo News Australia has since asked Coles to clarify whether the product was one of theirs and a spokesperson confirmed that it was and issued a further statement on the issue.
“Coles takes the quality of all our products seriously," the spokesperson said.
"A response from a Coles customer care agent on social media accidentally misidentified the brand of this product and we have since followed up the with the customer to get more details so we can investigate the matter with our supplier.”
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Unexpected item found in cheese packet
This isn’t the first time a customer has made an unexpected find in a product.
A Coles customer recently took to TikTok to share the worrying item he found in a packet of the store’s brand of shredded cheese.
His video offered a warning to parents to check through food before eating it.
"All you parents out here, if this is something you have in the fridge, or this is something you eat often, make sure you check it," he said, before panning over to a pile of shredded plastic he found inside the Australian tasty cheddar shredded cheese packet.
The video was viewed more than 68,000 times with the man later commenting that he had discovered the plastic while eating the cheese himself.
“Coles takes the quality of all our products seriously," a Coles spokesperson told Yahoo News Australia.
"We urge customers with a complaint to contact our Customer Care team so we can follow up their concerns.
"As always we encourage customers to return any item they’re not 100 per cent happy with to their nearest store for a full refund or replacement.”
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