Legal action against Cadbury's

02/08/2006

National law firm Irwin Mitchell have announced that more potential victims of contaminated Cadbury's chocolate, which the Health Protection Agency (HPA) has confirmed was the most likely cause of an outbreak of salmonella poisoning, have come forward to seek legal advice.

This announcement comes on the same day as Cadbury's Schweppes announce their interim report. The lawyer dealing with the suspected cases, Sallie Booth a Partner at Irwin Mitchell, said: "Since the HPA confirmed the likely link of the outbreak of the rare strain of Salmonella, known as Montevideo, with contamination at the Cadbury's plant in Herefordshire we have had a number of enquiries from people who believe they have been affected. We can confirm that we are currently investigating the most likely source of their exposure."

HPA records show that at least 3 people, including one child, has been hospitalised with the infection. This strain of Salmonella, which causes diarrhoea, vomiting, fever, chills and headaches, is particularly dangerous to the most vulnerable people in society which include children, who are the main consumers of chocolate.

Earlier this year The Food Standards Agency had to force Cadburys to withdraw 1m chocolate bars after the Salmonella Montevideo bug was identified at one of its factories. The identification of a potential source of the bug followed the HPA witnessing unusually high levels of Salmonella Montevideo poisoning in Britain, with 59 cases of Montevideo salmonella since 1 March, when on average there are usually 55 cases in a year.

Illness caused by Cadbury's chocolate

One of the clients currently investigating a legal claim against the company is Catherine Henderson (62) who had to be kept on a hospital isolation ward for five days after eating a Cadbury's Caramel bar. Mrs Henderson was told by environmental health officials that her tests showed the presence of Salmonella Montevideo, the same rare strain identified in Cadbury's chocolate.

Sallie Booth concluded "On the face of it there would seem to be a link with the Cadbury's plant at which this strain of Salmonella has been identified by the HPA.

"However, what is important now is that we ensure that as much as possible is known about this outbreak in order to restore public confidence in Cadbury's, a company we have all grown up with, and to protect others from this potentially serious infection."

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