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 All of the recalled products, which include Mars, Snickers and Milky
Way bars, were manufactured at a Dutch factory in Veghel, a Mars
spokeswoman said on Tuesday. They were sold in European countries
including Germany, France and Britain, and in certain countries in
Asia.
The recall, in effect since Monday, follows a Jan. 8 complaint from
a consumer in Germany, she said, who found red plastic in a Snickers
bar and sent it back to the company.
"We cannot be sure that this plastic was only in that particular
Snickers," a spokeswoman from Mars Netherlands said. "We do not want
any products on the market that may not meet our quality
requirements, so we decided to take them all back."
It was not immediately clear how much the complex recall would cost
the company, which is unlisted and therefore does not disclose
detailed financial information. The spokeswoman declined to comment
on financial implications of the recall, which is the first to
affect the factory.
Time delays between customer complaints and recalls are not uncommon
since companies often receive notices, some fraudulent, about
foreign objects in food, said Stephen Robb, a partner at Weightmans
LLP in Leicester, who represents manufacturers and their insurers on
product liability matters.
Consumer product recalls can result in heavy reputational and
financial hits, as Nestle learned last year when it recalled its
Maggi noodles from India after a package was found to have unsafe
levels of lead.
Cadbury's 2006 recall of more than 1 million chocolate bars after a
salmonella outbreak cost that company roughly 20 million pounds.
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Mars Netherlands said it was working closely with the Dutch food
safety authority on the matter, according to a statement.
The recall affected all Mars and Snickers products, Milky Way Minis
and Miniatures as well as certain kinds of Celebrations
confectionery boxes with best-before dates ranging from June 19,
2016 to Jan. 8, 2017. Those dates may not be the same in other
countries, the spokeswoman said.
Mars, based in Mount Olive, New Jersey, is one of the world's
biggest food companies, with 29 chocolate brands including M&M's,
Galaxy, Twix, Bounty and Maltesers. Aside from chocolate, Mars makes
Wrigley gum, Uncle Ben's Rice, Dolmio pasta sauce and Pedigree pet
food.
(Additional reporting by Hans Seidenstuecker in Frankfort, Lisa
Baertlein in Los Angeles and Thomas Escritt in Amsterdam; Editing by
Mark Trevelyan and Andrew Hay)
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