Cadbury faces prosecution

Laboratory tests by the Maharashtra Food and Drug Administration of samples of Cadbury's products confirmed the presence of two dead and one live organisms. The unspecified product was manufactured by Cadbury's factory near Pune.

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Cadbury India is now liable to be booked under the provisions of the food adulteration law. Confirming this, FDA Commissioner Uttam Khobargade told Business Standard: "As per FDA norms this is a clear case of adulteration. We will charge the manufacturer. We have not found any instance of this adulteration in the Thane unit of Cadbury India."

Khobargade added that while the company had offered the plea that faulty storage by a dealer was responsible for the incident, it was the manufacturer's responsibility to ensure that quality storage conditions were available with the dealers.

In a late night media release, Cadbury said: "We are not aware which samples have been tested by the Food and Drugs Administration.  Neither have we received any official report from their office. We would therefore not like to comment until we have had a chance to see the formal report. However, we have checked the relevant factory control samples and have found them to be of good quality and free of any traces of infestation."

On October 3, acting on a consumer complaint, the Maharashtra FDA seized stocks of Dairy Milk chocolates in Maharashtra.  A consumer found worms in a Dairy Milk chocolate bar, bought from a shop in Mumbai's western suburb of Andheri.

Cadbury Dairy Milk, the flagship brand, contributed 30 per cent to the company's Rs  687.30 crore (Rs  6.87 billion) turnover in 2002.