Woman buys almost 20kg of pearls for bubble tea - only to realise they expire in 21 days

A woman bought almost 20kg of tapioca pearls from a local distributor so that she could share them with loved ones to make bubble tea, but later realised that they were expiring in three weeks instead of six months.

Facebook user Samantha Rachel shared her experience with local firm Acorn, a supplier of beverage and dessert ingredients.

In a post on Wednesday (Apr 29), Samantha said she had purchased one carton of tapioca pearls to share with family and friends so that everyone could make their own bubble tea during the circuit breaker period.

The carton consisted of six packets of pearls, each weighing around 3kg.

Samantha decided to make the bulk order on April 23 as Acorn stated on its website that the tapioca pearls had a shelf life of six months.

However, Samantha was shocked when she received her order on April 28 and realised that the tapioca pearls had an expiry date of 20 May 2020.

She wrote in her post: "Seeing that it's impossible to finish up almost 20kg of pearls in such a short period, I got in touch with the seller.

"Instead of trying to help and solving the problem, the seller gave all sorts of excuses to defend himself."

In screenshots of the conversation that Samantha shared, the seller can be seen claiming that Acorn had customers who consumed the pearls "within three days".

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When asked if he thought it was reasonable to finish almost 20kg of tapioca pearls in less than a month, the seller said Acorn does not question why a customer purchases a product and only ensures that the product has not expired.

"We don't sell expired or defected items," he added.

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The seller also sent Samantha a screenshot showing Acorn's 1-for-1 return policy being valid only for breakage, defective or expired goods.

However, he did not address the disparity between the supposed six-month shelf life and the pearls' May 20 expiry date.

The product listing for the tapioca pearls that Samantha purchased no longer appears to be available on Acorn's website.

In her post which has been shared nearly 600 times, Samantha also alleged that the seller was "taking advantage" to get rid of nearly expired goods.

Stomp has contacted Acorn for comment.