An employee shows a box containing Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond. (Reuters)

The Saudi Food and Drug Authority (SFDA) has pulled out a random selection of Cadbury chocolate bars from the market to test for traces of porcine DNA following reports that surfaced from Malaysia stating that some locally produced Cadbury milk bars were found to contain pork derivatives.

An SFDA statement said that a periodic check for non-halal ingredients in food products by the Malaysian Health Ministry confirmed the presence of porcine DNA in Cadbury Dairy Milk Hazelnut and Cadbury Dairy Milk Roast Almond bars, the Saudi Press Agency reported.

The SFDA said that it then pulled out samples of the product that had been imported from various countries with different batch numbers to ensure that they did not contain traces of pork, which is forbidden in Islam.

“Cadbury products manufactured in Malaysia are not registered with us since we import from other countries such as Egypt and the United Kingdom,” Salah Al-Maiman, deputy executive chairman of the food section at the SFDA, said in the statement.

“Nevertheless, the SFDA will take strong steps if any sample tests positive for porcine DNA traces,” he said.

He urged consumers who come across milk hazelnut bars with operating number 200813M01HI2 (expiry date 13/11/14) or milk roast almond bars with operating number 221013N01RI1 (expiry date 15/1/15) to inform the SFDA immediately.