Dubai Municipality hits out at bogus chocolate campaign

An online promotion for syringes packed with chocolate is the work of scammers intending to rip people off, Dubai Municipality has warned.

The promotional message, which started doing the rounds on social networking sites and Blackberry Messenger late last week, contains images of needles that seem to be stuffed with chocolate and labelled Nutella.

However, the makers of the popular chocolate treat know nothing about

the messages.

“This is a scam,” said Bobby Krishna, senior food inspector at the municipality.

“We have conducted a thorough investigation and found that this product does not exist and the official distributors of Nutella in the country have said they are not behind the promotion.

“Why would one need chocolate packed in needles anyway? Members of the public are urged to immediately inform Dubai Municipality if they come across this.”

Khalid Sherif, the director of the food control, said that even if the product did exist, it would be unlicensed and unsafe.

“The Ministry of Health confirmed that needles are not clean enough to be used for food products since they are meant for hospital use only,” said Sherif.

“We strongly advise the public to only purchase food products in approved packages from authorised establishments.”