Fake Nestle chocolate bars found in UK store

Trading Standards in the UK is warning retailers to buy stock from reputable suppliers after discovering counterfeit chocolate bars on sale.

Officers from Essex county Council's Trading Standards team found counterfeit versions of Nestle's white and milk chocolate Wonka Bar products being sold at an unnamed shop.

The bars were copies of a line that Nestle stopped manufacturing three years ago, although the food giant still has recently re-introduced other products under the Wonka Bar brand. The owner of the store told officers that he had purchased the bars from a visiting salesman but had no invoice or receipt.

"On further investigation the packaging included a fake address and because the team could not be sure of the origin of the bars they were disposed of," said Essex Trading Standards in a statement.

"The team does not have any reason to believe the chocolate is unsafe but because they do not know where the chocolate comes from they cannot be sure that the chocolate was made in hygienic conditions or that the allergen advice was correct," it added.

The retailer has been given "comprehensive advice" on using reputable suppliers and obtaining the necessary paperwork when buying products in order to trace their origin.

Fake Wonka Bars were discovered being sold around the UK last year to tap into the continuing popularity of the brand, which was created by Roald Dahl in his Charlie and the Chocolate Factory book and reached the big screen in adaptations featuring Gene Wilder and Jonny Depp in 1971 and 2005, respectively.

The bogus products in circulation last year were found in a number of UK regions - including Suffolk, Lanarkshire, South Wales, London, and Lincolnshire - and were thought to have been re-packaged versions of cheap confectionary that does not qualify to be labelled as chocolate in the UK.

Aping the storyline in the book, the bars included a fake promotion promising that there were five 'golden tickets' that could be won. As it turned out every bar contained a winning ticket but there was no way to claim the prize.