Kraft investigates ‘worm-infested’ Cadbury éclair in China

17-Jul-2012 - Last updated on 18-Jul-2012 at 10:58 GMT

Worms were alleged to have been found in a Cadbury's Chocliar

Related tags Cadbury plc Chocolate Kraft foods

Cadbury parent company Kraft Foods has responded to allegations from a Chinese newspaper that a piece of Choclairs from a Beijing supermarket contained a worm.

Kraft Foods China has told ConfectioneryNews.com that it had investigated the claim, but found no evidence.

Lack of evidence

Fei Che, director of corporate & government affairs at Kraft Foods China, said that the company had learnt about the suspected incident from a Beijng local newspaper on Sunday.

“Before the newspaper report, we had not received the consumer’s complaint through Kraft Foods China’s Consumer Relations Hotline, nor had we received any inquiry from the Beijing newspaper for comment.”

“We contacted the local supermarket immediately to ask for the complained candy and the consumer’s contact details,” she said.

However, Che said that the supermarket informed Kraft that the worm-ridden candy had “disappeared” and they did not have the consumer’s contact information.

She said that Kraft was following procedure and had hoped to collect information to conduct internal quality analysis and inform the result to the consumer

worm flickr bzo — Local supermarket fails to give evidence on worm-containing candy. Photo credit: Flickr - bzo

Kraft in China

Kraft is the eight biggest player in the €7.6bn Chinese confectionery market with a 1.4% share, according to Euromonitor International. Mars dominates the market with a 16.5% share on the strength of its Dove brand.

According to Euromonitor, Halls is Kraft’s strongest confectionery brand in China.

Another worm fiasco

Cadbury, which was acquired by Kraft in 2010, was previously embroiled in another worm fiasco in 2003 in India

Allegations in domestic newspapers at the time claimed that the state Food and Drugs Administration (FDA) had seized Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate bars after two products were alleged to have contained worms.