Although Cadbury admitted discovering salmonella in its chocolate products months ago, the company did not alert health authorities or the public until cases of food poisoning began turning up across Britain.

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Last week the company recalled seven products due to concerns they were infected by a strain of salmonella. More than one million chocolate bars were removed from store shelves.

Contaminated 'Crumb' Mix

A food safety team in Britain is conducting analyses of nearly 30 other Cadbury brands that could have been made with a tainted mix of sugar, milk and cocoa.

They include Dairy Milk miniatures and Easter eggs being stockpiled for next year, according to Birmingham City Council's food safety leader Nick Lowe. The products were made from the mix, known as "crumb," and stored in a silo in Leominster, Herefordshire. The mix was then transported to factories at Bourneville and Bath.

The Food Standards Agency warned it could order the withdrawal of more products.

"There may be contamination in other Cadbury products," said spokesman Justin Everard.

"They are testing all their finished products. The local authority is testing as well. If more products come up positive, we will expect them to recall them too," he said.

"The crumb goes into a large number of products," Everard pointed out. "There is the inevitable question, is there a danger [because] it is in other things?"

Outbreak Stems from One Source

After testing positive for salmonella montevideo, seven brands -- 250g Dairy Milk Turkish, Dairy Milk Caramel and Dairy Milk Mint bars, the Dairy Milk 8 chunk, the 1kg Dairy Milk bar, the 105g Dairy Milk Buttons Easter Egg, and the 10p Freddo bar -- were withdrawn.

The problem came to light after three people, including two young children, were taken to a hospital in a food poisoning alert linked to Cadbury chocolate.

The Government's Health Protection Agency publicized the details on Thursday.

Thirty-one cases of food poisoning linked to a specific strain of salmonella montevideo -- the exact same strain of salmonella found in several popular products made by Cadbury -- have been identified so far by the HPA.

The HPA has classified the cases, which are spread across the country, as an outbreak that appears to have a single common source.

Cadbury Kept Mum on Danger

Although the victims' age range stretches from babies to adults of 52, most have been children under 4 years.

Cadbury acknowledged that it found contamination of its chocolate with salmonella montevideo in January this year, but it did not inform local health officials, the HPA, the FSA or the public until last week.

Despite the recall, Cadbury chocolate bars are still on sale, with one in four corner shops selling them in some areas, The Daily Mail has learned.

(c) 2006 Daily Mail; London (UK). All rights reserved.
(c) 2006 Daily News Central. All rights reserved.