ENVIRONMENTAL health officers are investigating after a mother discovered what she believes is a baby scorpion while sifting through her baby daughter’s milk formula.

Caroline Black was preparing a bottle feed for 17-week-old Olivia at her home in Clock Face when she came across a dead creepy crawly inside the powder, made by SMA Gold milk.

She has complained to both the manufacturer and to environmental health at St Helens Council, which is now examining the formula to see what Caroline, 29, said: “I couldn’t believe it when I first saw. All I could see was a little black bit inside the formula and when I looked, it appears to be a baby scorpion.

“After I rang up the customer care line they kept asking me was I sure that it wasn’t just some burnt formula. I said ‘unless burnt formula has legs and a tail, it’s definitely not’.”

After contacting SMA – a company part of the Nestle group - she was told to send the tin of milk back so the company could investigate the matter further.

However, it is now in the hands of environmental health officers. Despite Caroline’s suspicions there is no confirmation at this stage that the creature was a scorpion. A spokesperson for Nestle UK told the Star: “We are committed to the safety and quality of our products, and we take reports like this very seriously.

“As is our standard practice, we alerted our manufacturing facility in Ireland immediately after receiving the complaint, and they have conducted a full assessment at the plant based on the information received.

“We also asked Mrs Black to return the tin and the contents to us so that we could conduct a thorough examination. The case is now with the EHO, who we are working with to investigate the case further.

“We would like to reassure all our customers that this is an isolated complaint and our products are safe to use. If anyone has any concerns, we would urge them to contact our freephone Careline on 08000 81 81 80.”

But Caroline added: “My main worry was that if this has happened to me, it might have happened to other people too. I just want people to be aware of what I found.”