Tal Harosh, a resident of Jerusalem, thought she was imagining things: When she opened a carton of milk from Golan Heights Dairies, water came out.
In a conversation with Efrat Numberg Junger from the 'Mako' website, she says: "It took me a few seconds to realize that it was indeed water. I poured it into the glass several times to be sure."
Harush called the company and complained - and was promised compensation.
All of this happened at the end of last month and Roche forgot about the incident. Until she bought another carton from the same branch yesterday - and water came out again. "This time I went directly to the branch I bought from in Jerusalem and let them know. They told me I wasn't the first to complain and there are many more like me," she says.
Harosh called the dairy again, and this time, she claims, the service representative was very surprised. "There's no way she didn't know about it. I think she played it."
According to Mako, the Golan Heights Dairy has undergone an extensive upgrade process in recent years, after collapsing financially under the previous kibbutz ownership. The dairy had accumulated debts of NIS 40 million, partly because of the agreement to produce controlled milk for Shufersal's private brand - an agreement that caused it to lose money on every carton of milk.
In 2019, Zankel Company purchased the dairy for NIS 40 million and has since invested another NIS 30 million in upgrades, including a new and sophisticated milk line purchased in Japan at a cost of NIS 20 million.
Golan Heights Dairies told 'Mako':
This is a one-off incident in which, apparently due to human error, a few cartons of milk were filled and marketed with water. The dairy works according to the highest and most stringent quality standards and conducts ongoing monitoring to ensure the quality of the products and the satisfaction of our customers.
We will learn from this incident and draw lessons to prevent similar incidents from recurring in the future.