JELLY sweets bought for a Blackburn toddler had splinters of wood embedded in them, a court was told.

The 10p packet of sweets called Kids' Mix-up bore the slogan 'The Happy World of Haribo' but could have led to tragedy if the two-year-old had swallowed them, the court heard.

Fortunately, the little boy's mother spotted the wood embedded in the sweets, bought from Spar on Preston Old Road, Blackburn, before the child ate them and sent them to the town hall for analysis, said Alan Fairhurst, prosecuting, for Blackburn with Darwen Council.

Mr Fairhurst told Blackburn magistrates two pieces of hard wood were found in the packet. He said: "Although the wood is not poisonous it was physically dangerous and could have caused an injury."

Dunhills, of Pontefract, manufacturers of Haribo sweets, admitted an offence under the Food Safety Act. The company was fined £1,000 and ordered to pay council costs of £1,363.

The court was told this was the company's third offence involving wood in sweets in a matter of months. Previous incidents in December and March had resulted in a caution and another £1,000 fine.

Mr Fairhurst claimed the company had made efforts to rectify the problem but only after pressure from the environmental health authorities and said: "This is very much a case of locking the stable door after the horse has bolted."

Mark Green, defending, said the company made 20,000 tons of sweets a year and last year had received only 11 complaints. He said: "In my submission their safety record is good."

He told the bench the wood was believed to come from trays used in the manufacturing process but the company was now looking at using plastic ones.

Converted for the new archive on 14 July 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.