Cadbury Faces Legal Investigation

Chocolate giant Cadbury faces the prospect of legal action and a fine for its failure to tell the authorities immediately that some of its products were contaminated with salmonella.

Thousands of customers rang the helpline yesterday set up by the firm after more than one million chocolate bars were recalled. The major query being asked by many customers was to know why it had taken the company five months to disclose the danger.

Health officials although, have warned the public not to eat the eight affected products.

The Food Standards Agency, which oversees food safety in Britain, has begun an investigation and lawyers from the FSA and the two local authorities covering Cadbury's Bournville headquarters and the Herefordshire factory will meet this week to decide whether to prosecute.

Under the Food Safety Act companies must withdraw food from the market when they have confirmed contamination, and must also tell the authorities.

The company's European president, Matthew Shattock, said, “Our responsibility is to look after the welfare of our consumers and I can reassure you that our products are perfectly safe to eat and we have no evidence that anyone has been ill from eating them."

“We were contacted by the FSA and we spoke to them on Monday and it was at that point, in light of the awareness that we then gained of an increase in salmonella in the population, that we decided to conduct a precautionary recall."

According to the company, in January, at 0.3 cells of salmonella per 100g of chocolate crumb, the contamination was below the company's own "alert" level of 10 cells per 100g.

Now, Cadbury is to bury 250 tons of chocolate at the centre of the salmonella scare.

All packaging and wrappers will be removed and recycled before the million bars - weighing as much as 33 double-decker buses and equivalent to a third of Britain's daily consumption of Cadbury's chocolate - are dumped.

The company has not yet revealed where the chocolates would be buried.

Government food watchdogs will begin an investigation into why Cadbury took five months to report that a rare strain of the food poisoning bug - salmonella montevideo - had been found in its chocolates.

Cadbury has now also ordered a recall of seven Dairy Milk chocolate products, including Buttons Easter eggs, Dairy Milk Caramel and Dairy Milk Mint bars.