A tear-jerking tale of how a vital ingredient was left out of a bakery product can be revealed today by the Evening Press.

Customers at Thomas the Baker's shops throughout the region are unable to tuck into one of their favourites...cheese & onion pasties.

Simon Thomas, site director at the firm's bakery in Helmsley, laid the blame squarely on the shoulders of an employee.

"There's a measured product range that goes into every pasty type," Simon said today. "In this case, the young man who was mixing it forgot to put in the onion."

He said extra cheese had been added to the mixture to bring it up to the required weight, but it was not realised until later that the onion was missing entirely.

"The young person was tired. He had had an early start and, obviously, he just missed out on the onion."

Mr Thomas said notices in the shop were now referring to cheese pasties to ensure that customers knew what they were getting.

"They will have to sustain another week without onion, and then we will be back in production.

"The pasties are made in a batch and frozen so they can be brought out for baking fresh on the day in our shops."

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.