Police probe alleged tampering in chocolate bunnies

The Co-op recalled 3,000 of its own-label milk chocolate Easter bunny figures after the National Crime Agency (NCA), Nottinghamshire Police and the Food Standards Agency launched the investigation.

The small, single-cell battery was found by a three-year-old child, after she ate the ears of the rabbit.

The investigation followed the Co-op’s recall of 165,000 chocolate Santas before Christmas, after batteries were found in two of the products.

‘Alleged product tampering’​

The Co-op responded to the latest incident: “The health and safety of our customers is uppermost in our minds. We are concerned about one incident of alleged product tampering involving our hollow milk chocolate Easter bunny foil figure, which has been found to contain a small battery inside.​

“As a precaution, we have begun a UK-wide product recall and have withdrawn the product from sale. Customers with one of these products should not eat it but take the product back to store for a full refund.”​

The investigation was launched after Tammy Louise Dundon posted on Co-op Food’s Facebook page (below), saying her daughter had just found the battery. Dundon said she was “absolutely furious”​, and that her daughter could have died.

Dundon said: “As you are aware, any kind of foreign object would of posed a choking risk. But, a battery. With battery acid. Completely unacceptable, I am absolutely furious.”​

‘Absolutely furious’​

A Co-op Food spokesman responded to the claim on Facebook: “My sincere apologies Tammy. I’m glad your daughter noticed this before anything could have happened. ​

“This will be fully investigated by our technical team and supplier to find out how an earth something like this could have happened.”​

Nobody from the NCA or Nottinghamshire Police were available to speak to FoodManufacture.co.uk.

Meanwhile, ready meal manufacturer Bakkavor lost £1M in 2012 after “a malicious, but isolated act of contamination at one of our factories”​. The police investigated the incident.