The humble jelly baby has been giving fans a sugary thrill for generations, but the apparently innocuous treat harbours a somewhat dark and mysterious past. BBC News takes a look at its journey from a Lancashire sweet factory to mass-produced giant of the confectionery world.
As you pinch the last Jelly Baby out of the bag and sink your teeth into its plump little body, have you ever stopped to wonder if there's a method to your mastication madness?
Do you, for instance, nibble away at its arms and legs until you are left with a helpless torso? Or are you the ruthless type that goes straight for the kill and chops off its head, Henry VIII-style
The process by which you eat these innocent-sounding sweets has probably never occurred to you, least of all struck you as bordering on the macabre.
But this act of pseudo-cannibalism isn't the only disturbing chapter in the history of the much-loved jelly baby.
Confectionery historians believe the earliest jelly baby was the work of an Austrian confectioner who worked for Fryers of Lancashire.
It is thought that in 1864 he was asked to make a mould for jelly bears, but the resulting sweets looked more like newborn infants and were subsequently given the ghoulish name, Unclaimed Babies.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-35100612