Hands off those Creme Eggs...

Fury at sneak peekers seeking €1k prize

THEY are the crème de la crème for sweet-toothed fans... but last night many chocoholics were shunning their Cadbury Creme Eggs.

Shoppers are so annoyed that they are even urging shopkeepers to keep the chocolates out of reach of sticky little fingers – as people take a sneak peek under the wrappers for white ones worth up to €1,000.

The Willy Wonka-style promotion has caused such a strong reaction that the Food Safety Authority of Ireland felt the need to offer its own advice.

One disgruntled egg lover posted on Facebook: ‘Sick of going into shops and seeing all the Creme Eggs and the wrapper on most of them are pulled back to see is there a white egg in it. It’s so not fair and very unhygienic.’

Another said: ‘I love Creme Eggs – 100% my favourite but in our local shops every single one has been tampered with looking for the white egg, so I haven’t been buying them unless the multipack if I go to a supermarket.

‘It’s disgusting that are all being mauled by people.’ The food safety Going Wonka: Shoppers lifting wrappers before they buy authority said that it had received no complaints so far, but it did have some advice to give to the retailers and for Cadbury, saying that the promotion had created ‘heightened interest’ in the product.

‘From a food safety point of view, this is something that should be addressed at shop level where retailers feel that there is a risk of children opening the eggs without the intention of purchasing one,’ an FSAI spokesperson said.

‘The wrapping around the egg is the same as has always been around the usual Cadbury Creme Egg.

‘Consideration could be given to placing these at shop level where retailers feel open access is not an option.

‘This is something that Cadbury could look at when they review this promotion,’ the spokesperson added.

The promotion has also been running in Britain, where similar reports of shoppers and supermarket staff opening the eggs have been widely reported.

One shopper at a Tesco Express

‘It’s not fair and very unhygienic’

in Essex said: ‘I opened one of the other boxes that was stacked in the store and they were the same. I can’t see how that could have been done by shoppers.’

Last week Cadbury Ireland told Facebook followers: ‘Loads of White Creme Eggs have been found across Ireland but there’s still some out there. Keep hunting for a chance to find yours and win up to €1,000.’

Cadbury has been contacted for comment.