Cadbury has said the recent salmonella contamination which led to the recall of over one million chocolate bars will cost it about ?20m this year

The firm said the product recall cost ?5m and the total cost of the salmonella outbreak was expected to be around ?20m.

Cadbury said: "While chocolate sales in the UK have been impacted by extremely high temperatures in the last four weeks, the product recall has also had an impact on performance."

The manufacturer said that while the whole UK confectionery market was down 7% and the chocolate market was down 9% in the last four weeks, its own chocolate sales were down about 14%. It added its market share was down 1.1%.

Despite this, the chocolate giant reported a 24% rise in pre-tax profit for the first half of 2006. The firm said it expected full year revenues to come in at the top end of expectations, but added it was "still monitoring the trading impact of the UK recall".

Cadbury blamed the outbreak on a leaking pipe at its factory in Marlbrook, Herefordshire. The Health Protection Agency said Cadbury's chocolate the most likely cause of an infection outbreak in more than 30