A woman has been left horrified after her son nearly swallowed a metal spring found in chocolate treat from Marks and Spencer. 

Anita Kainth, 64, had picked up some snacks from M&S Foodhall on the Bath Road in Slough to celebrate her son buying a new home.

She served up the confectionary - including a tub of Rocky Road mini bites - to her family, including her son and grandchildren aged two and three. 

Upon her son putting the rocky road in his mouth, Anita said he "felt something was not quite right" like a "foreign body amongst everything".

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Spitting out the food, he found a spring estimated to be 5mm in diameter and 1.3cm in length.

"I was furious, my son is the person who actually put it in his mouth - it is very fortunate he did not swallow it," Anita said.

"I reported it immediately when it happened. I sent an alarmed email - we were all shocked."

Anita felt she had to warn the company, with fears other tubs could be out there and children could swallow similar pieces of metal.

The incident, which happened on Sunday, June 25, has rumbled on for months after Anita wrote to the company to complain and sent back the spring - but was disappointed they didn't apologise. 

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"I am very fortunate that I didn't give it to our grandsons," Anita added.

"We were not expecting to have a foreign body in any part of our meal."

Following instructions from M&S, Anita sent the spring and packaging to be inspected by the company, who investigated the item for six weeks before telling Anita "we have not been able to identify the spring as a spring that is part of the process/manufacturing line" in an email seen by the Observer.

Anita has slammed the company's response as "arrogant" and said she is "flabbergasted" as it would not be something she would make up.

Since the incident, Anita has refused to shop at M&S.

She said: "I will definitely not shop there."

Anita believes that the situation would have been paid more attention had the spring been found by a child.

An M&S spokesperson said: “We take the quality of our food extremely seriously and have investigated this with our supplier.

"We set the highest standards for our products and have written to the customer to explain the rigorous steps we take to maintain standards and prevent something like this from happening.”

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