Lethal batteries are found in sabotaged chocolate Santas
CHOCOLATE Santa figures have been sabotaged so that they could cause appalling suffering, life-changing injuries or even death in children.
Small button batteries have been found inside the figures, which are sold by the Co-op, in two locations.
Batteries contain chemicals that can burn through the delicate lining of the throat or stomach.
The discovery suggests a deliberate attempt to harm children as well as damage the sales and reputation of the Co-op. The grocery chain and the Food Standards Agency have announced a nationwide recall of 165,000 hollow milk chocolate Santa figures.
At the same time, a police investigation has begun in an attempt to identify the saboteur.
Previous attempts to contaminate food have been linked to criminals trying to extort money from brands or supermarkets. Another possibility is an attempt at revenge by a disgruntled employee or customer.
The chocolates that had been subject to tampering were bought at two different locations, one in Suffolk and one in Essex.
A spokesman for the store said: ‘The health and safety of our customers is our top priority. We are concerned about two separate instances of alleged product tampering involving our hollow milk chocolate Santa foil figures, which have been found to contain a small battery inside.
‘As a result we have begun a UK-wide product recall. The police and Food Standards Agency are being notified.
‘Customers with one of these products should call our customer relations team for a full refund.’
The FSA said: ‘The presence of small batteries makes this product unsafe to eat and presents a risk to health.’
Surgeons have warned of the potentially deadly risk posed to young children by button batteries.
An inquest heard in October how two-year-old Francesca Asan, from Basingstoke, died after swallowing one. It had been lodged in her throat for a week where it corroded and caused a ‘catastrophic’ bleed.
A girl of three from Northern Ireland was left with permanent damage to her throat after she swallowed a watch battery in April 2015. It became stuck in her food pipe and she began being sick and refusing food.
It was not until five days later that an X-ray showed she had swallowed a battery, by which time it had burned a hole through the oesophagus and windpipe. She spent nine months at Great Ormond Street Children’s Hospital in London and still needs to visit every few weeks. The hospital is now seeing one case linked to a swallowed battery a week. Surgeon Kate Cross said: ‘Button batteries should be treated like poison and kept out of reach of children.’
Miss Cross, a consultant neonatal and paediatric surgeon, added that if the battery gets stuck in the throat or windpipe, the fluids there cause it to release ‘an alkali which is like caustic soda, which can erode through the wall to the windpipe’.
‘If the battery is facing a different way it can burn into the aorta, a major blood vessel, and there have been cases where the child has bled to death,’ she said.