Mars recall includes 4 million candy bars in Netherlands stores

Chocolate company Mars recalled millions of chocolate bars in 55 countries, because they may contain pieces of plastic which could be a chocking hazard. In the Netherlands alone Mars Nederland recalled about 4 million chocolate bars on Tuesday. 

This follows a client in Germany finding a piec of plastic in a mini-snickers on February 8th, according to broadcaster NOS. The piece of plastic came from a closure cap on a pipeline. Something likely went wrong when replacing a line in the Mars factory in Veghel and the plastic wasn't removed when it should have been.

This means that plastic may have ended up in some chocolate bars, and Mars decided to recall them as a precaution. Recalled chocolate bars include Mars, Snickers and Milky Way in different sizes as well as packages of Celebrations and Mini Mix with expiration dates between June 19th, 2016 and January 9th, 2017. Mars released a list on which people can check whether their chocolate is safe. People who bought one of these chocolates can send them back for a refund before March 31st.

According to Mars, the chances of finding a piece of plastic in your chocolate bar is very small. "The odds of winning the lottery is better", a spokesperson said to NOS. "But we do not want to take any risks and do not want a consumer chocking or smothering because of one of our products."

This is the biggest product recall to ever hit the Netherlands, according to NU. On Tuesday Albert Heijn had a call center calling all 850 of its branches telling them to take these chocolates off the shelves. The chocolate bars disappeared off the shelves within a few hours. The same goes for 580 Jumbo stores and some 500 Shell stations.