Chocolate treat recalled over plastic choking fears

A popular French bakery brand is urgently recalling its chocolate-filled brioches over concerns they may be unsafe to eat.

Brioche Pasquier warned the Pitch product may contain “hard white plastic”, meaning they could also be a possible choking hazard.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) announced the bakery brand has asked people who purchased six-packs of its Pitch chocolate and hazelnut brioches that have a best-before date of 4 March to return them due to "the potential presence of hard white plastic".

It is not known how the plastic ended up in the brioches which are sold by several UK retailers and supermarkets, including Asda, Tesco and Ocado.

Only the Pitch chocolate-filled brioches sold in 225g packs of six (6 x 37.5g) with the batch code UK 034 are affected by the recall. No other batch code or other products are affected.

The batch code and expiry date can be found on the back of the pack.

Customers who bought the affected product are advised to contact Brioche Pasquier’s customer care team at technical@briochepasquier.com or via its website by visiting the Contact Us tab.

The FSA issues recall notices for products when there is a potential risk to safety.

Point-of-sale notices will be displayed in all retail stores selling this product to explain to customers why the product is being recalled and tell them what to do if they have bought it.

As well as posing a choking risk, pieces of plastic can also cause damage to the digestive system if ingested by scratching the lining of the throat, oesophagus, stomach, or intestines, leading to pain, bleeding, and infection.

The recall comes after the FSA confirmed there have been more than 30 reports of children with symptoms of toxin poisoning linked to recent recalls by Danone and Nestle.

The FSA confirmed on 30 January that arachidonic acid (ARA) oil, vital for infant development and added to formula for non-breastfed babies, was the affected ingredient.

It then emerged that the contamination that led to both recalls originated from a shared, third-party ingredient supplier.