Location of Candy Bars Could Lead to Bug Contamination

By Rusty Surette, NEWS 9

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Consumers across the nation have responded to a story about the discovery of bugs in candy bars sold at an Oklahoma City grocery store.

The family members said they found worms crawling inside several candy bars they purchased from Homeland.

Alice Norfleet and her family said they want others to see what they found in the Mr. Goodbars.

The family's candy bar was infested with small bugs known as meal moths.

The candy bars were purchased at a Homeland located on May Avenue near Northwest 122 Street. A spokesman for the grocery store said employees found four other bars that also contained the insects and were pulled off store shelves.

Viewers like Mike Brock were quick to react to the news.

"I instantly thought, 'Wait a minute, there's a lot more to this story'," Brock said.

Brock is a former sales representative for Hershey's, the maker of the Mr. Goodbars. Brock said the family's discovery is nothing new.

"I've seen it several times when I was in that industry," Brock said.

According to Brock, in most cases store managers placed candy near pet food that is more likely to contain these bugs.

"They'll burrow a hole in the plastic wrapper, they'll burrow through the chocolate until they get to the nut and they'll lay their eggs for the larvae to incubate out of," Brock said.

Homeland issued a statement to News 9:

This situation is quite rare. Nonetheless, it is a serious matter. After taking several immediate steps, including removing remaining product from the shelf, we continue to look into the situation. We carefully layout the merchandise in our stores to promote food safety. There was considerable and ample separation from the pet aisle in this store. We will continue to work with Hershey and we deeply regret the inconvenience this has caused the family.

The pet food and candy bars are not located near each other, and it remains unknown how the bugs managed to get into the candy wrappers.