Birmingham parents claim metal coil was found in baby's yoghurt

Jul 7 2009 by Jasbir Authi, Birmingham Mail

HORRIFIED Birmingham parents claim their baby daughter could have choked to death after they found a sharp metal coil in her yoghurt.

Anthony Hylands is demanding an explanation from yoghurt-makers Muller after he pulled the potentially lethal object from a strawberry-flavoured Little Stars tub he was feeding to seven-month-old Evie.

Mr Hylands, and his partner Kierah Irving, both 23 and from Yardley, immediately rang the Shropshire-based company after making the discovery on June 13.

The following day, the company dispatched a representative to collect the object and carton.

After an investigation, the company have said that they have no idea how the metal coil got into the yoghurt pot and sent the family £10 in vouchers – a goodwill gesture which infuriated Evie’s parents.

Mr Hylands said: “We had given her dinner and were finishing off with yoghurt.

“The first spoonful had a bit of a lump on it but was totally covered in yogurt. Fortunately I decided it was too much of a mouthful and scraped some yogurt off on the side of the lid.

“The blob turned out to be a metal coil, small enough to be disguised but big enough to choke a baby. It was sharp.

“Its not about money or vouchers, it’s the fact they have not taken responsibility for their error.

“What would have happened if I was not paying full attention, or my daughter was a little older and I decided to give her that big spoonful?

“We got a final letter saying they had put the coil in the yoghurt through the X-ray machine and it had been picked up by the system.

“They enclosed vouchers which I intend to send back.

“We want an answer about how it happened because if it happened once, it could happen again.”

A Muller spokeswoman said: “Our investigation concluded that there was no internal source of the foreign body complained of, and underlined the effectiveness of our systems in the prevention and detection of such foreign bodies.

“Product quality and consumer satisfaction is of paramount importance to Muller and we are pleased that following our investigation we can reassure our consumers that this is an isolated complaint and that no other products from the Müller range are affected.

“Despite producing nearly three billion pots and bottles of product a year, our proportion of complaints is enviably low and this is the first complaint of its kind in our company’s history.”