Food Poisoning From Fake Chocolate....

versace1888

Hi Everyone,

this is a bit of a strange situation, but I'm looking for some advice. If you are squeamish, you may not want to read it!!

Last Saturday night I took really ill (now I mean this is the worst I have EVER felt in my life) - I was projectile vominting, severe dirahoea and crippling stomach pains, sweating, shivering.....you name it.. This lasted for 2 days, I then started to feel better and was well enough to go back to work on the Tuesday. By the Wednesday early morning, I was once again in the depths of despair and hugging the porcelain for dear life......except this time the symptoms were ten times worse than before!!!! So again, more time off work. I can honestly say I have never felt so ill in all my entire life, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

I went to the doctor and she said I had severe food poisoning, which I couldn't understand as I had eaten exactly the same as my husband.

Anyway, I have since found out that the only thing we didn't eat that was the same, was a Wonka Chocolate bar that someone had bought for me. I had eaten a few squares of it on the Saturday night and when I was feeling better again on the Tuesday night another couple of squares (not thinking for a second that it could be the culprit of why I was so ill).

I have since heard that many shops that were selling it have stopped selling it as it was giving people dirahoea. When I checked the wrapper there is no company address or telphone number on it and just a hotmail email address (clearly not very professional!).

I want to contact the company to know where I stand on this but I just want to know what my rights are. I am disgusted that they can get away with selling something that is making people so violently ill. I also noticed a post on wikipedia (I know its not always 100% true) and it stated that there were wonka bars in circulation in 2012 that didnt meet consumer protection regulations.

Can anyone offer any advice on this? Sorry it's quite a graphic post!! xx

TonyMMM

You keep the wrapper (and any bits/flakes of chocolate left, however small) and contact your local environmental health office.

terra_ferma

I'm very surprised about the hotmail email address, are you sure they are not fake. It's practically unheard of that a genuine company uses a hotmail address.

This looks like Nestle's real thing:
http://www.wonka.com/home.aspx/products

I also found these with pics of the fake bar:
http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/business-consumer/kids-let-down-by-willie-wonka-chocolate-1648085

http://thecandyalley.blogspot.co.uk/2012/10/fake-wonka-bars.html

I agree that you should give those to someone to analyse, Nestle will also be interested, there is nothing worse for a company than consumers thinking it's one of their product making people ill

EDIT just found a lot of these wonka chocolate bars on sale on ebay. Ebay would remove them quickly if Nestle tells them they are fakes, that's why I would recommend contacting them.

versace1888

Thanks so much for your reply - I took your advice and contacted Nestle who were very interested and who also want to test the bar and so I've to send them some.

I also done some detective work and I managed to track down who I believe is the owner (although he denied it) - I wonder if my next step should be environmental health/ food standards agency/ trading standards. Who would be the most relevant to contact?

shaun_from_Africa

Personally, I would suggest that you wait a while and see what Nestle have to say.
If there is a copyright and health issue, I'm sure that the manufacturers will have a lot more clout with Trading standards and the health dept than the general public, and they may well decide to launch a private prosecution themselves.

InsideInsurance

Ultimately they will test it and come back with results but from what you say:

Ate Saturday night and started diarrhea Saturday night
Ate Tuesday night and started diarrhea early Wednesday morning

It would be unusual for food poisoning to have such an immediate effect. It is possible but generally your looking at 12 - 24 hours from ingestion to diarrhea.

From what you say however it sounds like a fake product and so Nestle may be interested from a copyright perspective but it may not be the culprit for your illness

McKneff

Food poisoning doesnt necessarily come from what you actually eat. It can come from a million and one places in your daily life.

Touch a door, touch your lip, open a packet of biscuits that someone else in the supermarket has touched and put down again. etc.etc etc.

Leave it to Nestle

unholyangel

Most common types will present themselves within 1 to 3 days however, there are strains that can take 3-6 months to show any symptoms. The quickest is 0-30 mins (if memory serves).

It can be extremely hard (if not impossible) to pinpoint the source.

What strain did your doctor say you have? Or didnt they perform blood tests? What antibiotics did they prescribe?

System

unholyangel wrote: »

What antibiotics did they prescribe?

Pointless unless it was proved to be a bacterial strain.

geo555

Sound like you caught a dose of norovirus.

DCFC79

InsideInsurance wrote: »

Ultimately they will test it and come back with results but from what you say:

Ate Saturday night and started diarrhea Saturday night
Ate Tuesday night and started diarrhea early Wednesday morning

It would be unusual for food poisoning to have such an immediate effect. It is possible but generally your looking at 12 - 24 hours from ingestion to diarrhea.

I noticed that as well, thoguht it was a bit quick for it to have an affect but posible I guess.