SANTA MARIA - Santa Barbara County's Environmental Health Department says it will formally investigate a complaint by a Santa Maria family that candy they bought at a local drug store had maggots.
"He opened some more and they had them in there and they were like live", says Theresa Castro about opening the chocolate bars at home."
The Castro family says it discovered cob-webs and maggots on Snickers candy bars it bought from the CVS drugstore on South Broadway in Santa Maria.
"He got another one, he opened it, same thing happened", Castro says, "he opened another one and there still maggots in it."
"Claims can be sometimes false", says Kathy Cardiel of the Santa Barbara County Environmental Health Department.
Cardiel says County Environmental Health inspectors will investigate the Castro family's claim.
"We would be going in basically to look at how the food is stored", Cardiel says, "if there is a rodent or vermin issue inside the facility."
The corporate office of CVS responded in a statement saying they are sorry for the Castro family's experience and adds the company has taken steps to address the matter.
The statement goes on to say CVS has removed all of the Snickers bars in the bin from the sales floor at the Broadway location and that an inspection shows none of the other bars are expired.
CVS says all of its stores in the region are inspecting their Snickers products but no further issues have been detected.
CVS says the maker of Snickers bars has been notified and that, in its opinion, the issue appears to be an isolated incident involving one candy bin at one store.
County Environmental Health says it does have the authority to shut down any local business that it feels is not taking the specific steps necessary to remedy any situation that's been raised in a specific complaint.
CVS tells Central Coast News the Castro family situation appears to be an isolated incident but it says it is looking at candy bins in all of its stores across the region.
