Rakusen’s apology for ‘crummy’ matzah
Consumers complain that traditional Passover crackers have been replaced by curved thin wholemeal-looking ones
Louisa Walters is Features Editor at the Jewish News and specialises in food and travel writing
Rakusen’s has issued an apology after customers complained about the quality of its Passover matzah.
Some consumers noticed the traditional flat, crisp, white and brown Rakusen’s matzah had been replaced by a curved, thin, wholemeal-looking cracker that was brittle to the touch and stale to the taste.
On Tuesday, after the long bank holiday weekend, Rakusen’s staff returned to work to a stream of emails, Facebook posts, private messages and phone calls, while comments were made on a Pesach recipes Facebook group.
A few people did say that theirs were fine, so possibly this was a batch issue.
The company posted a statement on its Facebook page, saying it was ‘shocked and saddened’ to learn about the below-par kosher for Passover matzahs and said it is undertaking a full investigation to discover what went wrong.
Rakusen’s sales director Sarah Hemingway said: “We cannot understand what has gone wrong. We haven’t done anything different. We have a golden rule: ‘Don’t mess with the matzah’.”
She added: “We are a small company with 35 employees, many of whom have been here for a long time. We have all worked incredibly hard to deliver for Passover. We are not aware of any issues that could have caused these problems.
“We are taking the matter very seriously and are launching a full and detailed investigation. This matter is critical and we are taking it extremely seriously. I hope our customers realise from our statement how much we care.”
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