Chocolate cleared from Australian stores in contamination scare

Efforts to recall thousands of Mars and Snickers bars from shelves in Australia have been stepped up in the wake of a contamination scare, the manufacturer said today.

MasterFoods, the company that makes Snickers and Mars bars, ordered a recall of tens of thousands of the chocolate bars on Friday after receiving a letter claiming that seven contaminated bars had been placed on shelves in the area surrounding Sydney, the capital of New South Wales state.

Retailers have been clearing the bars from stores throughout the state as police investigations continue, and some reports have suggested that a leading criminal profiler has been brought in to assist in the case.

MasterFoods placed a large advertisement to appear in Sydney newspapers tomorrow warning consumers of the recall.

The company said it received two threatening letters last month, one containing a Snickers bar laced with an unknown contaminant.

“The letter made threats against an organisation in Sydney that is not connected to us in any way,” MasterFoods President Andy Weston-Webb said the advertisement. “The threats would be carried out if certain future demands were not met.”

A similar letter was received a week later but posed no threat to the public, and police and health authorities did not recommend a recall.

The third letter, claiming seven contaminated bars had been released, prompted the recall.

“The police believe our products were chosen at random and that this person’s grievance is not related to MasterFoods in any way,” Weston-Webb said. “It saddens me to think that there is a person who would put the community at risk in this way.”

Weston-Webb said the threat was focused on Sydney, and police have said there was no evidence that consumers outside New South Wales state were at risk from contaminated chocolate.