Cadbury Products Recalled in UK Over Fear of Listeria Infection: What We Know

Over fear of listeria, thousands of Cadbury products are being recalled from stores in the United Kingdom. 

"Listeria infection is a foodborne illness called by the germ Listeria Monoctyogenes. It can cause listeriosis, a serious infection, upon consuming contaminated food."

Centers for Disease Control

The recall has been initiated only in the UK and not in India. Here’s all you need to know about what happened.

Items Recalled: UK’s Food Standards Agency (FSA) has asked consumers to return the 75 gm packets of these products to supermarkets for a full refund if their ‘use-by’ dates are 17-18 May. 

• Crunchie Chocolate Dessert

• Daim Chocolate Dessert

• Flake Chocolate Dessert

• Heroes Chocolate Dessert

• Dairy Milk Buttons Chocolate Dessert

• Dairy Milk Chunks Chocolate Dessert

A statement by the FSA said:

“Muller has taken the precautionary step of recalling some batches of various Cadbury branded dessert products because of the possible presence of Listeria monocytogenes.”

Muller is a supermarket chain that started recalling the products after “an alarm was raised about contamination,” Metro reported. 

Not the First Time: Cadbury Schweppes was also fined USD 2 million in 2007 by a UK court “for selling unsafe chocolate in Britain and Ireland during 2006 in a salmonella-related health scare,” reported LiveMint.

Mondelez, the parent company of Cadbury, has so far not issued any guidelines for the products in other countries.

Who Is at Risk?

• Pregnant women

• Older people

• Infants

• Immunocompromised people

If a pregnant woman contracts listeriosis, miscarriage could be a huge risk. In others, if the infection is severe, it could cause meningitis or can turn fatal.

Symptoms of Listeriosis:

• High temperature

• Muscle pain

• Fever or chills

• Diarrhoea

• Nausea

• Vomiting

• Convulsions

• Headaches

In most cases, the symptoms will show a few hours or days after you’ve eaten the contaminated food item.