The Tribune

By YOURI KEMP

Tribune Business Reporter

ykemp@tribunemedia.net

The Quaker brand's Bahamian wholesale distributor yesterday confirmed it will not drop its products despite recent recalls due to fears some may have become contaminated by salmonella tainting.

Jeff Martinborough, Quaker's brand manager at Thompson Trading, told Tribune Business it remains a “very strong brand" despite recent events. Quaker last week announced an international recall of several of its granola-based products, including the Chewy Yogurt, its Oops All Berries cereal and its Oatmeal Squares cereals.

This is the second worldwide recall in as many months that Quaker has issued. The first recall was on December 20, 2023, but Mr Martinborough explained that this latest recall related to one of Quaker’s production plants and does not reflect a serious issue with the entire chain.

“All of those things came from one particular plant and that’s why it’s kind of isolated," he added. "They first recognised this problem in December. So this seems to be a continuation of what happened in December. They sent the second recall notification on January 10, but basically all of that stuff is off of the shelves. We are not dropping the band. It’s a really good brand."

Thompson Trading had to dispatch employees to ensure the impacted Quaker products were removed from Bahamian retail shelves, which Mr Martinborough described as a tedious process but “it had to be done".

He added: “We got to these stores every day, so when we go there to deliver, at the same time they pick them up. But it’s a lot of work for us because we have to go and get it destroyed, but at least it is a system that we have to do. We have to get refunded.

“This is a solid brand. I just came from one of their factories and it’s amazing. They do a lot of stuff to make sure things are safe and there are proper products with quality. So it was amazing.”