Rolkem - yes or no
Rolkem - yes or no?
February 2019
Most of you will remember the Rolkem fiasco of 2018 when independent testing confirmed the presence of non-permitted substances in several Rolkem products.
Following investigations by Cake Stuff and laboratory testing commissioned by South Lanarkshire Council Environmental Health department, both Food Standards Scotland (FSS) and the Food Standards Agency (FSA) were advised of the findings. The FSA issued a ‘FAFA’ (Food Alert For Action) notice on 10th July that made the sale or use of Rolkem products illegal.
You can view the FAFA notice here: https://www.food.gov.uk/news-alerts/alert/fsa-fafa-01-2018
Rolkem have repeatedly failed to meet every deadline agreed with the FSA for producing certification to prove that their products were correctly labelled to show all ingredients and that these ingredients had been independently tested by an accredited laboratory. At the time of writing, Rolkem’s website is not accessible via any of the main search engines (check for yourself: http://rolkem.co.za) and Rolkem's Facebook page has disappeared completely, so there is no likelihood of any co-operation or assistance from Rolkem. You're free to draw your own conclusions.
We have obviously not sold any Rolkem products since last June but we have helped hundreds of customers return their Rolkem products for full credit, despite Rolkem themselves offering no such help. In fact, we still have thousands of pounds worth of stock that we could not sell . . . until now!
The FSA has decided that Rolkem products can now be sold as ‘non-edible’ sugarcraft dusts / lustres / glitters for use on what the FSA refers to as “fake cakes”. Within the cake decorating world we recognise this to mean dummy cakes, display and exhibition pieces – basically anything that is not intended for consumption.
We realise that many of our customers create competition and exhibition pieces, and have really missed not being able to use Rolkem products. Although we will never re-order any more products from Rolkem, we are considering selling off all our remaining stocks as 'non-edible' sugarcraft products and we wondered what you thought of the idea.
No matter how clear we are from the outset, some customers will simply not read what we’ve said, will pick up on FB gossip or will simply misunderstand about us selling Rolkem again, so we want to ask for your opinion before we make a decision. If most customers are in favour, then we will go ahead and sell off remaining stocks. Please remember that will not be re-ordering / re-stocking any Rolkem product - we are simply selling off whatever stocks are still available.
We cannot stress enough that these products are being sold as non-edible food contact products and should not be used on any cake or other product that is intended for consumption. We have tried to be as clear as we can possibly be, so respectfully point out that it is the customer's sole responsibility to ensure the proper and legal use of Rolkem products on their cakes.
All pots are sealed and in perfect condition but please remember that any printed BBE dates are now irrelevant as the products are not edible.
We'll collate your responses and report back with more information about when the products will be available to order. Watch for the next email newsletter!
Please choose yes or no and click on the 'submit' button by Friday 15th February . . .
