On July 16th, the news of a suspected mouse head found in a pickled cabbage instant noodle from Uni-President went viral on Weibo, causing Uni-President China’s stock price to plummet by 10%, with a market value loss of about 2.9 billion Hong Kong dollars.
According to reports from mainland Chinese media such as “Times Weekly” and “Cover News”, the relevant personnel of Uni-President China (referred to as “Uni-President”) responded to the incident where a consumer claimed to have found a mouse head in their instant noodle by saying that they have personally visited the consumer, and the original video of the incident has been removed.
As a result of the news, Uni-President’s stock price took a nosedive on July 16th, closing at 6.11 Hong Kong dollars per share, a significant drop of 10.01%, resulting in a market value loss of about 2.9 billion Hong Kong dollars.
Mr. Wu, the person involved in the mouse head incident, stated that on July 14th, he purchased a Uni-President pickled cabbage beef instant noodle from a local store and discovered the mouse head while consuming it. He has filed a complaint with the local market supervision department.
The incident originated from a video posted on July 14th by a netizen named “Brain-dead Mickey”, claiming to have found foreign objects in the Uni-President pickled cabbage beef instant noodle and expressing, “This is a mouse head from the pickled cabbage, and yes, I even took a bite.”
In the pictures shared by the netizen, an unidentified object was found near the Uni-President pickled cabbage packaging. The packaging of the Uni-President pickled cabbage beef instant noodle box carries a label that reads, “See the production line at the assured factory, scan the QR code to watch the video of the production line for the Instant noodle and the pickled cabbage jar room.”
Following the uproar of the incident, some netizens commented, “Old Temple pickled cabbage noodle, why is it always you again”, “Since the last exposure, I have never eaten pickled cabbage noodles again”, “I never expected there would be a sequel to this.”
In fact, Uni-President is not new to food safety issues. A search on the Black Cat Complaint Platform using the keyword “Uni-President” showed 46,889 complaints, many of which were from consumers reporting problems with Uni-President products, including “foreign objects found in Uni-President beverages”, “damaged packaging of Old Temple pickled cabbage noodles”, “mosquitoes found in instant noodles”, with many complaints centered around the “Old Temple pickled cabbage noodles”.
The company involved in the “Pickled Cabbage Scandal” exposed during the 2022 “3.15” Gala is one of Uni-President’s suppliers. In the footage captured by official media, workers from Hunan Chiqi Caiye and Jinrui Food Co., Ltd. were seen stepping on the pickled cabbage with slippers or bare feet and even throwing smoked cigarette butts into the pickled cabbage.
According to the Tianyancha App, Kunshan Uni-President Food Co., Ltd. was established in May 1993, with Uni-President (China) Investment Co., Ltd. holding full ownership. Its parent company is Taiwan’s Uni-President Group, which entered the mainland China market in 1992 and has since invested in over 50 companies.
Business information indicates that Kunshan Uni-President Food Co., Ltd. participated in drafting the National Standard for Instant Noodles, GB/T 40772-2021, in 2022.
Uni-President is not the only brand that has faced food safety issues in China. The summary of quality inspections on instant noodles from 2020 to 2023 released by Consumer Reports Magazine in December 2023 revealed that over the past three years, 67 batches of instant noodles were found to be substandard in the inspections. Brands included Uni-President’s Little Racoon, Samyang, Aji, KOKA, and Boy Bending Noodle, among others. Non-compliance issues involved total bacterial count, acid value, coliform group, peroxide value, and other items, mainly attributed to microbial exceedances, rancid fats, unauthorized preservative use, excess moisture, excessive sweetener content, and excess aluminum residue.
According to the “2023-2028 Instant Noodle Industry In-Depth Analysis and Investment Value Research Report,” in the instant main food sector, China ranks first in the world in terms of instant noodle production, and the per capita consumption of instant noodles in China ranks ninth in the world.