MOTH THAT LIKES CHOCOLATE.

Greymouth Evening Star, 21 December 1934, Page 20

MOTH THAT LIKES CHOCOLATE.

WOMAN'S CLAIM FAILS Details of the life history of a moth which attacks foodstuffs were given at Marylebone County Court, recently. Mrs Maisie Elizabeth Chandman, of Elsham-road, Kensington, sued bury Brothers, of Bournville, for £25 damages in respect of alleged person al injuries following the eating of 3 piece of chocolate which she said contained grubs. Mrs Chandman said that while recovering from an illness in July she sent for a half-pound block of Cadbury's fruit and nut chocolate. She ate a piece and cut up the remainder, Then she saw five or six “little crawly things” coming out. As a result she was very sick and could eat nothing solid for a week. This affected her nerves and gave her health a decided setback.

Mr. R. A. Wills, for Cadbury Brothel s, said the claim raised a question of vital importance to every manufacturer of packed foods. When Mrs Chandman complained to Cadbury Brothers they denied liability, but offered to pay her out-of-pocket expenses, which she refused. If, in spite of the greatest care and the provision of works which were a model for people all over the world, an accident happened, and a piece of chocolate became infected; was that negligence? That was the issue. “Human food is subject to attacks by insect posts,” counsel continued. “One serious source of danger is a small grey moth, like a clothes moth, called ephestia. This moth is very prevalent in a dry, hot summer. It flies by night, and may get into a shop or store, where it lays eggs about the size of a pinhead. “These hatch out into infinitesimally tiny caterpillars, .which can easily get through a holo a seventh-thou-sandth of an inch in diameter. THROUGH THE SILVER PAPER “Having a sort of instinct for food, and especially chocolate, they crawl through the smallest cavity, get through packing and silver paper without any difficulty, and then eat chocolate, nuts or raisins, and grow and grow until they become a chrysalis. This in time turns into another moth, which goes away and lays eggs, making trouble for more manufacturers.

“That was the cause of the condition of this chocolate. These creatures can get into it at any stage after packing, but the manufacturing process is such that if they were in the material before it is manufactured they would be destroyed. “When the chocolate leaves the works it is absolutely sterile as far as insect life is concerned. It is highly improbable that the chocolate was infected at' the works.

“The company cannot make their packing impervious except by having hermetically sealed tins, which is commercially impracticable.

Mr. A. W. Knapp, Cadbury’s chief chemist, said of nearly 00,000 packets of chocolate sold in July only five were returned.

Mr. It. V. Wandsworth, another of Cadbury’s chemists, said to put chocolate in sealed tins would put up the price at least twopence a tablet. The ephestia was quite a common moth.

Mr. D. F. Brundrit (for plaintiff): Is it poisonous?—Not at all. I have eaten many pieces of chocolate infected by the moth without any ill-effects.

Mr. Wandsworth added that it was ■impossible to fasten foil round the chocolate in such a way as to keep out insects.

Mr. Thomas Macara. director of research of the-Association of Research for the cocoa, coffee and confectionery industries, said he knew of no firm who had taken such elaborate precautions as Cadbury Brothers. They had been leaders in the campaign against the ephestia moth. It was not practicable to sell the bars of chocolate in sealed tins. That would necessitate every woman carrying a tin-opener in her bag. The jury returned a verdict for Cadbury Brothers, and Mr. Wills said he did not ask for costs.