Mars bars in choking alert still on sale in UK
MARS chocolates at the centre of a global safety recall are still on sale in corner shops.
Boxes of Celebrations chocolates that may contain pieces of plastic were bought at stores in London, Bristol and Leeds yesterday.
It comes as the confectionery giant faced searching questions over why it apparently took 11 weeks to realise millions of chocolate bars may have been contaminated with sharp pieces of plastic, a potential choking hazard.
US-owned Mars is recalling all products made at a Dutch factory between December 5 and January 18, which runs to tens of millions. This suggests the contamination, which has been linked to maintenance work on the production line, may have occurred well before Christmas.
Millions of the Mars bars, Snickers, Milky Ways and other smaller fun- size versions of the chocolates have already been eaten.
All major supermarkets in Britain have cleared their shelves of the suspect products, and changed their tills’ software to stop purchases. But corner shops do not have the same technology, which means the chocolate bars and packs are likely to remain on sale for some time.
The UK recall relates to 250g packs of Mars Fun-size, which are minia- ture versions of the bars; 227g packs of Milky Way Fun-size, two of the company’s large Variety Fun- size packs and two of its Celebrations boxes, weighing 388g and 245g.
However, Daily Mail reporters bought boxes of Celebrations at shops in Bristol, London and Bramley and Armley in Leeds. Staff on the company’s helpline confirmed the products were part of the recall and should not have been on sale.
About a dozen 388g Celebrations boxes were on sale at Baryah’s newsagent in Fishponds, Bristol. Co-owner Gurdip Baryah said: ‘I didn’t know about the recall. Those chocolates are new stock. They came in last week. The suppliers will usually send a letter if something needs recalled but I haven’t had a letter from them or Mars.’
The owners of the other shops said they were also unaware of the recall. The owner of a shop in Bramley said she thought the recall involved full-size Mars bars, which is not the case in the UK.
Yesterday, a senior Mars executive at the factory in Veghel admitted the company had discovered the problem ‘too late’. In fact, Mars staff did not realise its popular products posed a health threat until after they were told by a customer. It appears a woman in Germany found a small piece of red plastic in a Snickers bar on February 8. She reported it to the company imme- diately, but executives did not issue a formal recall until yesterday – two weeks later.
Jack Tabbers, general director of Mars Netherlands, said a plastic pipe lid about 6ins in diameter fell into the equipment and was cut and crushed into small pieces.
He said the small piece of plastic had sharp edges, adding: ‘This creates the possibility they could hurt small children or even choke them.’
Mars initially said the recall applied to 55 countries, but it could be many more because consignments were sent to distributors who deal with duty-free shops around the world.
The customer helpline set up by Mars in the UK was inundated with calls yesterday morning, with some customers taking more than half an hour to get through.
People who want to get a refund are being given a Freepost address where they can send the products. Rather than being given their money back, they are being offered Mars vouchers. Consumers have criticised the red tape and say it will put many people off claiming the refund they are entitled to.
Mars said: ‘We are working with our direct customers to remove recalled packs from shelves as quickly as possible. In the case of retailers who are not supplied by us directly, we are working to make them aware of the recall via wholesale channels and trade media.’