It is believed because the store is regularly cleaned and the product is often restocked that the maggots might have been maliciously placed there.
A spokeswoman for Tesco said: "We were horrified to hear about this. This area of the store is regularly cleaned and filled with new products. We are conducting a full investigation and will involve the police if necessary.”
‘Occurred once it had left our control’
Cadbury claimed any contamination of the product must have happened once it had left its control.
A spokeswoman for Mondelēz International, the company that owns the Cadbury brand, added: “The picture we have seen in the media certainly looks unpleasant but we have no comment to make as any contamination would have occurred after it left our control."
Local press reported that shoppers Braden Little and Josh Downs, both 18, were stunned when they picked up a bag of Cadbury’s Caramel Nibbles in the Tesco store on Roker Avenue in Sunderland and discovered maggots in the box they were stored in on the supermarket shelf.
Is it understood that the incident was a one-off as the individuals had purchased a similar product earlier in the day and not experienced any problems.