Risk of Easter compensation claims reduced

When I think of Easter, images of fields laden with daffodils, bunny rabbits, fluffy little chicks and newborn lambs pop into my head. Easter means that spring has well and truly sprung, a big fat bank holiday weekend is on the way and there's going to be chocolate, mmmmm lots of lovely creamy, chocolatey indulgence.

However, the last thing that you want after hunting all over the garden for an egg shaped treat is to face having to make a compensation claim. More and more cases of product liability claims resulting from contaminated confectionary are becoming known.

There was a case reported in the news last year where one of the UK's confectionery kings faced the possibility of some of their products being contaminated with salmonella. Back on 23rd June 2006, Cadbury Schweppes Plc recalled seven of its popular products as a precautionary measure to minimise the chances of personal injury occurring and resulting product liability claims being made.

The products recalled included: Cadbury Dairy Milk Turkish (250g), Cadbury Dairy Milk Caramel (250g), Cadbury Dairy Milk Mint (250g), Cadbury Dairy Milk 8 chunk, Cadbury Dairy Milk (1 kg), Cadbury Dairy Milk Button Eater Egg (105g), Cadbury Freddo (10p).

The recalled products were found not to comply with the food safety requirements due to possible contamination with Salmonella Montevideo and the cause of contamination was attributed to a leaking pipe in the production factory.

In response to the decision to recall popular products, Simon Baldry, the UK Managing Director of Cadbury stated, "We've been making chocolate for over 100 years and quality has always come first.

"We have taken this precautionary step because our consumers are our highest priority. We apologise for any inconvenience caused."

Its not just chocolate products that have posed the threat of compensation claims having to be made. Cadbury's sister company, Bassett's, recalled its Milky Babies confectionary range as a result of small plastic pieces being found in some packets, thoughts to have been caused by a fault in the manufacturing process. Concern was raised that pieces of this plastic could have caused a choking hazard and resulted in a consumer having to enlist the help of a personal injury solicitor to make a no win no fee compensation claim for damages.

Both safety concerns have now been rectified and fresh batches of the Cadbury and Bassett's products are now on the shelves.

However, it seems that there is some light at the end of Willy Wonka's tunnel of love in that product recalls in the UK food sector actually fell by seven per cent last year. According to a report by law firm Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, the number of food recalls fell to a total of 71 but overall product recalls of all goods rose by eight per cent to 179.

It is thought that an increased availability of information via the internet has contributed to consumers sharing their experiences of faulty products and contaminated food stuffs with the rest of the public and increased the rate at which watchdogs such as the Food Standards Agency have become involved.

This will benefit consumers by protecting them from faulty products which may result in the need to make a compensation claim for personal injury compensation as long as only fact is posted online rather than misleading opinion.

So let's hope that the decrease in the number of food recalls for last year carries through to 2007 and that Britain's consumers have a product liability compensation claim free year. I, for one, would much rather tuck into a velvety truffle-centred Belgian chocolate egg and devour it in complete ecstasy than have to worry about cracking a crown or developing some vile disease.

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Katy Lassetter, Online personal injury compensation claim specialists, with a 97% claim success rate. Call 0800 197 32 32 or visit http://www.the-claim-solicitors.co.uk/personal-injury/personal-injury-product-liability-case-study.htm for more details.