Cadbury Schweppes will have to wriggle its way out of another publicity setback in the UK after a schoolgirl complained she had found a caterpillar in her Cadbury Creme Egg.
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The youngster had purchased the chocolate egg from Cadbury’s World, in Bourneville, before claiming to have discovered the crawling insect and sharing her concerns with the confectioner and tabloid press last weekend (11 August).
The Creme Egg in question has been sent to Cadbury’s consumer relations department, also in Bourneville, for further analysis.
Cadbury Schweppes spokesman Tony Bilsborough told just-food: “We are still unsure that this happened under our control.
“It is difficult for us to know without yet seeing the product; all we have seen so far is comments via email and newspaper reports. We always listen to what our customers have to say.
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By GlobalData“We are not aware of any others (caterpillars) in Creme Eggs.”
This incident follows the recall of around 1m Cadbury chocolate bars in the UK and Ireland on 23 June due to a possible salmonella contamination from a leaking pipe at its Marlbrook factory in Herefordshire.
However, Cadbury was keen to distinguish this from the customer’s Creme Egg complaint, saying that the Creme Egg was sourced from a different plant entirely, and involved a product that was not among the seven brands recalled in June.
Following the June recall, Cadbury came under fire from the UK Food Standards Authority (FSA) for late notification of the problem.
The FSA concluded in a later investigation that the testing system employed by the confectionery firm to check for salmonella was outmoded, unreliable and underestimated the threat of contamination.
In response, Cadbury told the authority last month it would thoroughly clean its production lines, and operate a positive release system where products are only released for onward distribution after they have tested negative for salmonella contamination.
