Starbucks Korea Delays Summer Bag Promo Following Formaldehyde Detection

Starbucks Korea has been on a hot streak with its promos. It's been offering branded products as parts of loyalty programs and seasonal releases, and it has seen so much success and demand that it's had to even scale back its promo releases to shift the focus to the actual coffee.

However Starbucks Korea's track record isn't flawless. Last August, the company discovered that the branded bags it used for a summer giveaway contained formaldehyde, and was forced to issue a recall.

Now, as a result, Starbucks Korea announced it will delay a branded bag campaign scheduled for this summer to ensure the products go through stringent inspections.

Starbucks Korea to recall 1.8m giveaway bags containing toxic chemicals https://t.co/PJIFZyY9SH

— Yang Sung-jin (양승진) (@sungjinyang) August 11, 2022

Formaldehyde is listed as a group 1 carcinogen, and was present in adhesives, fabrics, and building materials.

"The schedules for this summer's promotional events are still being developed," a Starbucks Korea representative told The Korea Herald. "The are running a more thorough analysis of our [summer] free giveaway items this year."

So, while that's obviously a black mark on Starbucks Korea's reputation, this is a reasonable follow-up. Rather than try to simply brush it under the rug or go forward with a giveaway that could result in another recall, Starbucks is doing its due diligence and ensuring that the product arrives safely, albeit just a little later than customers would want.

"In order to prevent a repetition of last year, we are putting in every effort to make our free giveaway items as safe as possible," the Starbucks Korea source told The Korea Herald.