THOUSANDS of York-made KitKats had to be withdrawn from supermarket shelves after the discovery of metal particles.

Nestl Rowntree bosses were forced to remove two batches of the two-finger ten-pack new Kit Kash promotional packs from shelves at Tesco stores across the UK.

An investigation has been launched at the company's Wigginton Road factory to discover how the small metal particles got into the packets.

A Nestl spokeswoman said: "Although information at this point indicates it is highly unlikely consumers have purchased any of the affected products, safety is our first priority and we therefore chose to take this precautionary action.

"We are working closely with Tesco to ensure that the affected packs are returned to us.

It is very unlikely that any have been sold, but as a precautionary measure, we are asking consumers who may have bought packs of the affected product from Tesco between November 18 and 28, 2005 to return it to us for a full refund.

"We are also taking out advertisements at the earliest opportunity in national newspapers to alert consumers to this issue.

"Consumers who have purchased the new Kit Kash promotional packs from retailers other than Tesco are advised that these products are perfectly safe to eat."

The production codes for the affected packs are batch codes 52981012 and 52991012.

These codes can be found underneath the seal on the back of the multi-pack outer wrapper.

A Tesco spokeswoman said: "We've removed the product from our shelves and will give full refunds where appropriate. It is purely a precautionary measure."

The Nestl spokeswoman said: "This is an isolated incident and we can

confirm no other KitKat products or packs, or any other Nestl products, are affected.

"Nestl takes the issue of food safety and product quality very seriously, and we wish to apologise to consumers for any inconvenience this issue may have caused."

Further information for consumers is available by phoning free on 0800 63785385.

Updated: 09:54 Friday, December 02, 2005