They are the chocolate treat with the memorable advertising slogan How do you eat yours?
But a Fife woman got more than she bargained for when she bought two Cadbury’s Creme Eggs from a local shop and discovered one of them was infested with a colony of ants.
Heather Manzie (52), of Easter Balgarvie Farm Cottages, near Cupar, decided to treat herself to the sweets at the weekend.
She bought them from the Factory Shop in Cupar’s Burnside but was horrified to make the stomach-churning discovery that the inside was crawling with insects.
Mrs Manzie, who runs Kelbonny Kennels, told The Courier: “I bought the eggs and took them home. I was cleaning up the house with my granddaughter. I ate one of the eggs, which was fine, and put the other one down on the table.
“Half an hour later I picked up the second egg and noticed ants on the table. It was then that I saw an ant coming out the seam of the egg’s foil paper.
“I got the egg, ran outside, split it open, and was horrified to find there was a colony of ants inside. It was sickening.”
Ms Manzie videoed the egg and then blasted it with fly spray before taking it back to the shop to make a complaint. She left it there for the shop to dispose of.
She added: “When I went back to the shop all they could say was ‘here is your £1 back’. When I pointed out that I now have to try and remove all these ants from my house, they would not even offer any compensation.
“They even left all the eggs in place within the shop without even checking the condition of the eggs.”
A spokesman for The Factory Shop, which has outlets throughout the UK, apologised to Ms Manzie and confirmed the Cupar store’s supply of Creme Eggs had been removed as soon as they were made aware of the problem.
He said: “Staff were shocked when they discovered what she was telling them. The eggs were taken off sale immediately and destroyed.
“They couldn’t find any other eggs with the problem it may have been an isolated incident where the problem arose at any point of sale but we do take these matters seriously.
“The customer left before our staff had the chance to explain to her that the eggs were being removed. If she contacts us, we would like to offer our apologies directly.”
John Watt of Fife Council’s food safeyt team said: “We will arrange to see the premises to make sure there is no infestation there. he photographs appear to suggest that the product came into Fife with the ants.
“However, this cannot be confirmed unless the complainant contacts us. If it is an issue with the premises, we will deal with that locally. If it is to do with the manufacturer, we will deal them and the home authority where the factory is.
“If we find that the product was manufactured abroad we will take this up with the Food Standards Agency who can progress the investigation throughout Europe.”
A spokesman for Kraft Foods, owner of Cadbury’s, said: “This sounds like an extremely unpleasant experience for Mrs Manzie. Given these would have left our factory some months ago, this infestation has not happened in our control.
“However, we ask Mrs Manzie to send the products back to us so we can investigate further”.