FDBusiness.com

Thorntons has recalled three varieties of chocolates after they were found to be contaminated with glass while fake Wonka bars have been found on sale in the UK.

The Thorntons recall was initiated after glass was found loose inside Smiles Glass Jars and is not the result of an issue with the manufacture of the chocolates themselves, said the firm.

Nestlé, which owns the Willy Wonka trademark, said no Wonka bars have been made since 2010, they have no Willy Wonka competitions operating in Britain and are not currently selling any Wonka-branded products.

Glass shards found

Thorntons said to avoid any risk to customers they decided to recall the entire production of Smiles Jars.

It involves the 135g milk chocolate Smiles Jar, 135g pink chocolate Smiles Jar and 350g milk chocolate Smiles Jar.

“The safety and quality of our products are our upmost priority. We sincerely apologise to our customers for any inconvenience caused. An investigation into how this occurred has been launched,” said a statement.

“Any customers who have purchased these products are advised not to eat them and return them for a full refund to any Thorntons store…”

Smiles Bags and any other Thorntons products are unaffected.

Not-so-golden ticket

Meanwhile, the fake Wonka bars, which have no name and address on them, and do not display the Nestlé trademark, have all been found to contain bogus “golden tickets” but no information on how or where consumers can claim their prize.

The illicit Wonka bars contravene a number of labelling requirements and fall well below the standard to be called milk chocolate, said Suffolk Trading Standards.

Concerns had been raised about the illicit chocolate bars in a Nottinghamshire County Council meeting in October last year.

The Suffolk Trading Standards seized several boxes of the products claiming to have five prize-winning golden tickets up for grabs after receiving information from the BBC .

Tristram Singh, trading standards officer said: “We are very concerned about the sale of these suspect chocolate bars – not only do they mislead the public with the promise of a non-existent prize, but they are poor quality, and contravene food labelling laws.”