Phuket consumer protection officials on Monday inspected the island’s main department store in Rassada after a customer found a dead rat inside a packet of Thai fermented fish (pla ra) products.
A team of officials from the office, headed by Somnuek Halem, inspected the large department store after the news had gone viral in social media.
Officials found that all the fermented fish bags had already been removed from the shelves of the main store and other branches.
The head of stock at the store told officials that the fermented fish products were from the Northeast and arrived in Phuket already packed in plastic bags.
Somnuek said: “We have to check the original source of this product to see if the factory has satisfactory standards of sanitation or not.
“We’ve also asked the store to randomly check their products before putting them on shelves. Two years ago a snake was found inside a fermented fish packet, from the same store.”
