M&S shopper finds 'angel' in bag of Colin the Caterpillar sweets in Easter miracle

The resurrection of Jesus wasn't the only miracle this Easter weekend, after one shopper discovered an 'angel' hiding inside a packet of supermarket sweets. A Reddit user shared a photograph of the peculiar item they'd stumbled upon in a bag of Marks and Spencer Colin the Caterpillar fruit sours sweets. The yellow sugar-coated sweet is clearly shaped like an angel or fairy, similar to the kind you might see perched atop a Christmas tree, complete with a flowing dress and wings — but bears absolutely no resemblance to everyone's beloved confectionery caterpillar.

The user uploaded the image of their unusual discovery with the caption: "Found a mysterious angel/fairy sweet in with my Fruit Sours Colin the Caterpillars - really cute interaction ensued!" They also shared a photograph depicting what the sweets ordinarily look like — elongated, multi-coloured, sugar-dusted caterpillars, each comprising 10 segments — clearly worlds apart from anything resembling an angel or fairy.

They further shared a response from M&S's customer services team, which stated: "Thank you so much for getting in touch, and for raising such a wonderfully curious question. Messages like yours honestly make our day. Rest assured, there's nothing mystical going on (sadly no hidden fairy edition... yet), but what you've spotted is still very interesting. Sweets like Fizzy Sour Colin the Caterpillar are produced using moulds during manufacturing.

"From time to time, especially when equipment is being cleaned, changed, over, or tested between production runs, an individual sweet can end up in the mix that's shaped slightly differently from the rest, even if it's made from exactly the same ingredients and recipe. This doesn't mean the sweets come from another brand, and it's not a novelty item or anything separate from the pack itself.

"It's simply a harmless production quirk, a one-off guest appearance, if you like, and perfectly safe to eat. Think of it as a bonus character making a cameo in the Colin world.

"You've absolutely done the right thing by getting in touch out of curiosity rather than concern, and there's no issue at all that you no longer have the packaging or receipt. Thank you for sharing something that clearly caught your eye (and imagination)."

The Reddit user commented: "Big thank you to customer service for giving such a lovely response!! I'm still a little sceptical though - it's just such a perfect shape to have been a manufacturing error... "

Many were left puzzled by the discovery. One person remarked: "A lot of text and no real explanation. How does a caterpillar mould produce something like that, with entirely different proportions? Unless it got squashed into itself in a unique way."

Another put forward a potential explanation, saying Colin the Caterpillar sweets are produced by a German company which also manufactures numerous other confectionery brands, and the angel could have originated from one of these product lines, becoming mixed up at the facility, reports the Mirror. The sweets' packaging confirmed they are made in Germany.

Others criticised M&S's response, claiming it seemed to have been created by AI rather than composed by a human employee. One person remarked: "Why does it make a customer service reps' day that someone has found a fairy sweet in their caterpillar sweet and asked about it?

"It's not a curious question, it's literally a quality control issue that's being raised - they should be apologising/explaining not acting like OP (the original poster) has brought some weird deep reflection to the world of sweet manufacturing. As cynical as it is, if you're being complimented in an online exchange with a company (outside of some generic 'thank you for being a loyal customer') - then you're probably getting AI responses."

Another stated: "Even though they say nothing mystical is going on, personally I would believe this is a sign." And someone else offered their own interpretation. "Surely you realise that's it's not an angel or fairy," they remarked. "He's a caterpillar, so that's obviously a cocoon for him becoming a butterfly. It even has wing shapes on top."

M&S was contacted for comment.