Chinese retailer Suning Commerce Group, which owns the Redbaby chain, is offering insurance to customers buying infant milk formula, in a bid to allay customers' concerns.
Baby milk in China has been under scrutiny for some time due to certain brands adding chemicals to their milk which made babies sick and sometimes resulted in death. A wave of food scandals has also hit the country in recent months.
The insurance scheme is backed by China's second largest insurer Ping An Insurance and the policy states that if a brand of milk powder is recalled, customers who bought cans from any Redbaby store or its e-commerce website will be paid up to 2,000 yuan (approximately €245) a can, with payments capped at 100,000 yuan.
Suning said that, "In recent years the milk powder market in China has been in a mess. We realised that parents pay a great deal of attention to their children's health and safety and in particular the safety of their infants' foods."
The insurance is the first of its type and will be free for the first 40,000 cans of baby formula sold. After that, customers can buy the insurance online.
© 2014 European Supermarket Magazine – Europe’s grocery retail magazine, for all your breaking supermarket, convenience store and FMCG news. Article written by Nicole Gernon
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