ENVIRONMENTAL health chiefs are to carry out a full investigation following the discovery of glass in a tub of ice cream.

The fragment of glass will be sent by City of York Council to an analyst to try to identify where it originated.

Officers will also contact the local authority in the area where the ice cream was packed, to find out whether any other cases have arisen.

The Evening Press reported earlier this week how York resident Karen Tweed had been enjoying a bowl of raspberry ripple ice cream, in a two-litre tub bought from Asda's Monks Cross store, when she choked on a fragment of broken glass.

She said she managed to cough the glass up, but was left with the taste of blood in her throat and a sore throat.

Karen said the consequences could have been much more serious if the fragment had been in another portion of ice cream eaten earlier on by her two-year-old niece, Abbie Martin, of Swinton, near Malton.

She said the glass was like the top of a drinking glass.

"My husband thought at first it was a piece of ice until he cut his finger on it," she said.

Karen's sister-in-law, Jacqui Martin, said she was not happy with Asda's response when she complained, and she then lodged a complaint with Ryedale District Council's environmental health department.

A Ryedale council spokesman said it was passing the complaint and the glass sample on to City of York Council because the ice cream was bought in its patch.

A York council spokeswoman said: "We will be carrying out an investigation into how and why it came to be in the ice cream.

"The sample will be sent to an analyst to try and identify its origins and we will be asking questions of the place where the ice cream was packed, as well as liaising with the local authority in that area to find out if there have been any other complaints.

"However, we are not aware of any similar cases, which suggests - at this stage - that this is an isolated incident."

Asda has insisted that it treated Mrs Martin's complaint as a matter of the utmost importance, and said that an investigation was being launched by the company into how the fragment of glass had got into the ice cream.

A spokeswoman said its inquiries would go back to the manufacturing plant, where great efforts were made to ensure foods were not contaminated in any way.

She said that no other complaints had been received about any other ice cream tubs.

Updated: 11:43 Tuesday, March 29, 2005